Our community is the custodian of the skills, resources and commitment we need to care for our environment. We achieve our goals by leveraging this community strength wherever our community is – among residents, visitors, workers…even friends we’ve never met. We do this through flexible planning and activities, around a strong core of committed volunteers and in partnership with supporting groups and organisations.
Our Mission
Our mission is to help transform this degraded, weed-infested ribbon of riverland into a healthy riparian corridor as part of Melbourne’s most important river system.
We aim to help our community embrace their identity as ‘Riverbankers’ and custodians of our precious riverland.
We aim to honour its ancient and complex heritage:
- its geological significance at the eastern edge of Victoria’s Great Western Basalt Plain.
- its place in the lands of its traditional owners the Wurundjeri-willlam people of the Kulin Nation; and
- its place at the heart of Melbourne’s pastoral and industrial beginnings, its contemporary life and a healthy future, benefiting residents and wildlife alike.
Our Team
Anna Ridgway
When not Riverbanking on hands and knees and managing the group, Anna runs a consultancy helping businesses improve how they communicate and manage business relationships across cultures.
Anna’s worked and volunteered in local conservation, migrant English, employment support and anti-slavery programs in Australia and El Salvador.
Salvatore Rapisarda
Salvatore is one of those quiet legends we all know – they bring down the tools you forgot (often doing more than one trip), transport stuff, haul weed bags, bring coffee and food…then assert seriously, ‘I don’t really do anything.’
As Treasurer, Salvatore brings a super methodical approach, financial smarts and an eagle eye for detail.
Salvatore is also Careers Practitioner at one of Melbourne’s large private schools, as well as being a business and (being Sicilian born) Italian teacher.
Jennie Irving
Jennie is what we’d call a ‘Renaissance woman’.
As well as a get-stuck-into-it Riverbanker, she’s also a musician, blogger, craftswoman and mother of 4 great young people, 3 with ASD.
Jennie’s gone from corporate law to language teaching to performing arts teaching in a small specialist education setting. She’s strong, witty, possesses that elusive quality called charm…and she’s someone you know you can rely on.
Margaret Blakeney
A long-term Abbotsford resident and user of the Yarra’s paths for recreation and spiritual renewal, Margaret didn’t have much ecological knowledge but noted the degradation of our lovely riverbank over the years. She was inspired by the Riverbankers’ gentle, persistent and inclusive approach, so decided to offer her muscle to the team. Margaret’s learned a lot!
April Newton
April is a Conservation Officer with Trust for Nature, based in Castlemaine. She’s juggling work with Conservation and Ecological Management studies at RMIT. April loves bird watching and flower spotting and enjoys getting to know the biota of new regions – last year it was the Yarra riverbank; this year it’s the Box-Ironbark country. She’s very project-based in her work, and thoroughly enjoyed leading the Abbotsford River Bird Survey.
Become an Abbotsford Riverbanker member
Help transform the Yarra River in Abbotsford into a thriving river corridor