By Jane Salmon

Killara is a place of beautifully appointed private spaces.

My grandmother (born in 1902) shared an old horse with her siblings. They rode to school together reciting Shakespeare to the clop of the hooves. Elocution was popular. It is her parents and folk like them that helped pay for our first theatre. It is only one of the ways in which they contributed to our lives here now.

My grandfather went off to be gassed in World War One. People still see this area as a haven from the World’s grief. New arrivals rebuild from close to zero and we need to come together to understand it all.

I have living been here 25 years. When my sons with special needs were younger, I was renting and broke. Even today, some variants of autism elude a great many supports and services.

Sport wasn’t a great success. (Cue the Benny Hill theme while the kids ran all over the suburb).

The Roseville Arts Centre has been special to us. A great pottery teacher let my kids be their quirky selves. She didn’t turn a hair when her clay modelling class called “Under The Sea” became not orange coral, pink anemones or yellow fish but the blue and red “Lost Trains of Atlantis”. I love the people that “get” neuro-diverse and quirky kids. It takes a village. And experienced, caring villagers. I thank them and those like her. And the adjoining park in Roseville was good for time out. It’s a fair walk from a coffee cart with a stroller though.

Not so Marian Street. It can be home to multicultural community events including plays, dance, choirs and music.

It can be open, welcoming and inclusive of people from every circumstance. The Arts always have been that place.

It can be the friendly, smallish, local, space far from the tension, commercial bustle and the relative challenges of Hornsby or Chatswood. Above all, it is accessible to people across the whole Council area on a rail line offering lifts.

It gives families a break from school grounds and issues in the weekends and holidays. (We know schools need to recover too!). Church halls are already booked out.

Marian Street Committee is where business sense meets care and insight. Marian Street or MYSTP programs are stretching and inclusive.

Marian Street is where a child with anxiety can learn to be expressive;

It is here a child with autism might learn “theory of mind” from role play;

It is where a socially withdrawn child might learn light and sound;

It gives a break from screens;

It is where imagination can thrive;

It even more interactive than pantomime or cos-play;

If dressing up is your thing, it is a way to pool costumes;

The theatre opens to Selkirk Park when a child needs to zoom or ground themselves or have a bit of a meltdown if they must;

It is a low traffic spot for birthday parties;

It is where single parents can comfortably rub shoulders with families from other church or socio-economic groups and have a laugh;

Here grandparents can enjoy after school care over a cup of tea or a weekend outing to see a play.

Friendly, local, safe, inclusive, it is a bit like the library – only kids can be NOISY.

It can be where we go to meet to thank our community leaders for backing us and come together with shared focus.

When we build this, we offset existing and any imminent high density housing.

We hold space for owls, vanishing whip birds, possums and nectar sources like azalea, bottle brush, gymea lilies and waratahs. The park might even include running water or frogs.

My hope is that soon every councillor will join with state and federal leaders to celebrate the first of many openings, to take pride in prioritising the needs of folk from each end of the LGA, state and federal electorate.

This project keeps faith with our forebears while fulfilling our future needs. It is a legacy project that will matter 50 years from now – a place for a plaque expressing thanks to every past, present and future member of this Council that takes it forward.

We have the DA. We are a mature Council that can build things. We are good to go.

We need to keep taking the next stage forward.

Each approval and inclusion is a measured and timely stride towards our valuable goal.

Let’s do it.