Issue #4

Welcome to The Prestonian, a fort-nightly newsletter that brings you all the ins and outs of Preston and it's local surroundings.

We are a group of creatives who want to share our love and passion for the northern suburbs. We'll be covering a whole host of topics ranging from local news to food reviews to local sports. Everything Preston, always.

Meet our editor

Sezer is a creative writing wiz who specialises in putting words onto a page. He moved to Preston at the start of the year and fell in love with the suburb. You can see him walking his dog, Ramsay, up and down High Street.

He works as the social media marketing manager for Digital Basis, a Preston-based digital agency that has thrown its support behind The Prestonian.

What are we covering in this issue?

A local school that is making a difference in the community, an upcoming cultural day at the Preston Market and an open week at a brand new gym who plan to bring fitness and wellbeing to Preston.

The Pavilion School

The Pavilion School is tucked away on Sylvester Grove in the back streets of Preston, just a few minutes walk from Plenty Road. With trees that line the streets and a small fence around the school grounds, it makes for an inviting prospect when walking into the building.

TPS welcomes at-risk teenagers and provide staff who are helping to turn around the lives of disengaged young people that have been expelled from mainstream education or dropped out for whatever reason. There is no judgement here, just work to improve the lives of teenagers who have fallen on hard times in their schooling life.

We were lucky enough to be given a tour of the school grounds. Including the beautifully maintained main building, the community gardens established in conjunction with the City of Darebin, and the Pavilion Food Van which is open to the public for coffee and food from 12pm to 8pm Friday to Sunday.

Principal Michael Scicluna refers to Article 26 in the Declaration of Human Rights that everyone has the right to an education and The Pavilion underlines their ethos as unconditional positive regard. Sometimes young people are marginalised in the education system for a variety of different reasons and TPS takes all those presentations and says yes to them all, a place that welcomes while others might shun.

The classes have three adults at all times, a teacher, a wellbeing worker and a student support worker. This allows for better teacher to student ratio leading to improved relationships in the classroom where being treated equally is of utmost importance.

On the grounds of TPS there is a community garden filled with fruits and vegetables for all to enjoy. The gardens are tended to by the community, and the staff and students of TPS. Speaking to Paul - the food tech coordinator, we learnt about the different fruits and veggies planted in the garden and how the system operates in tandem with members of the community.

Paul runs cooking classes in the brand new classrooms built on campus, with the classes providing students skills and knowledge in-line with their studies. The exposure to fresh produce for the students is massive for their development and brings an added level of appreciation for students when engaging in class.

Public access to the grounds opens every day from 4pm where members of the community can come with their families or their pets to enjoy everything the campus of TPS has to offer, including benches, native Australian plants and even a traditional brick pizza oven!

Right next to the gardens you'll find The Pavilion Food Van, a fantastic initiative run by Ash. The food van operates from Friday to Sunday, and provides the students a Cert II in Hospitality. Hands-on learning that gives the students an engaging way to learn about finance, budgets and hospitality while providing customer service with a smile to the people of Preston.

You can grab a tasty burger and a coffee for prices you won't find elsewhere, just take a peek at the food van's Instagram page to see the quality of food being put together by students. 

Being connected to the community is a huge factor for TPS which is why there are so many great events and initiatives being put into place for everyone to enjoy, if you're a Preston local then get down to the campus to enjoy the grounds and grab yourself a bite to eat at the food van.

Support the good work the team at The Pavilion School are doing and get involved with your local community today!

Website: www.pavilionschool.vic.edu.au | The Pavilion Food Van: @pavilionfoodvan

Italian Day at Preston Market

Preston Market have put together another great initiative for the multicultural population of Preston with an Italian Day in August.

The event day will feature live entertainment for all ages, cooking demo's for anyone wanting to add new recipes to their repertoire, traditional Italian food stalls for the foodies, free activities for the kids and much more!

We love exploring everything Preston has to offer, and can't wait to spend a Sunday afternoon at the market getting involved with Italian culture.

Mark you calendars for Sunday the 28th of August from 11am to 3pm. Salute! We'll see you there!

Website: www.prestonmarket.com.au | Instagram: @prestonmarket

The Prestonian eats for $20

Here at The Prestonian we are fortunate enough to be surrounded by so many great spots  to grab a bite. From fantastic coffees to mouthwatering pizzas and everything in between.

We wanted to give ourselves a little challenge today, the idea was to see if we could feed ourselves for the work day with $20, this means coffee, morning tea and lunch. 

Getting to the office in the morning we needed a quick hit of caffeine to get started with our day, so off we headed to the Preston Market. We grabbed a coffee from Contraband Coffee Traders, $4 for a cappuccino to warm us up after another chilly Melbourne morning.

Before we left the market we couldn't resist popping in to Publique Bakery to grab something sweet for morning tea. With so many mouth-watering options to choose from, we eventually landed on the raspberry danish for $2.50. Super flakey pastry filled to the brim with custard and raspberry, and if we hadn't set ourselves a limit we would have purchased a few extra for sure.

Lunchtime rolls around and we've got $12.30 left in our back pocket with a craving for a quality sandwich. A ten minute walk from our office is the brilliant A Simple Sandwich, so out the door and onto High St we went. The staff are always smiling and make you feel welcome as soon as you walk through the door, and with amazing food choices you can't go wrong. We spotted the chicken schnitzel sandwich for $12 and locked it in as our final choice for our $20 challenge. 

A full day of eating during office hours completed and $1.50 leftover for the next time we try this.

If you're looking for eats in Preston that are super satisfying and don't break the bank, check out the places we hit up this week. With a little exploration of our great area you'll be sure to find even more options in Preston and it's surrounds.

Contraband Coffee Traders | Publique Bakery | A Simple Sandwich

Awake Gym Open Week

Saturday July 30th marks the start of the open week at Awake Gym + Wellness on High Street in Preston.

The team at Awake have been busy putting together an amazing workout space for people of all skill and fitness levels, with high quality strength equipment, dedicated cardio areas and even a beautiful pilates studio tucked away in the back.

The entire gym will be open to the public, so you can lift some weights, join a pilates class or even have a sweat in the infrared sauna.

We can't wait to head in and enjoy what Awake has to offer.

Saturday July 30th to Friday August 5th - 4.30am to 10.30pm.

Website: www.awakepreston.com.au | Instagram: @awake.preston

Sport in Preston

VFL: Northern Bullants v Casey Demons - Match Preview

It has been a tough old season for Preston's VFL team with only a solitary win to show so far, but not for lack of effort. The Bullants are a young side and are building their list to become a competitive side over the years to come. Casey host the Bullants in what looms as the hardest test yet in a year filled with difficult games for the struggling Bullants.

After being comfortably beaten by Box Hill last weekend at Preston City Oval, the Bullants will be looking to make some improvements this week to better reflect their efforts against the best team in the league. The 17.13 (115) to 8.11 (59) scoreline not making for great reading for Bullants fans as the Hawks dominated all major stats for the game. Will Mitchell, Tom Wilson and Billy Murphy the bright spots for the Bullants.

Casey are yet to be defeated this season and are looking to cement their place at the top of the ladder by overcoming the Bullants. They continued their strong form by overpowering a spirited Bulldogs outfit to finish the game 9.12 (66) to 6.7 (43) winners on a day where the Bulldogs stayed in touch for most of the match, only for their goalless final quarter to give Casey the buffer they needed to ice the game.

You can head to Casey Fields to watch the game in person, or tune in online to catch all the action! 

Match time: 1.05pm - 30th of July 2022

Spread the Word

The future of The Prestonian is bright, and we want to showcase more and more of the Northern Suburbs. Bringing increased exposure to small businesses in the area, and creating a sense of community by keeping everyone in the know.

If you're a business owner, a local resident or a lover of Melbourne's Northern suburbs and you have something you'd like to share, then DM us on Instagram @theprestonian or reply to this email to get in touch. 

Tell your friends, tell your family, tell everyone you know, we want to bring the beauty of the Northern Suburbs to as many people as we can.