Up along a windy road in the hills you will find a quaint cottage playgroup, nestled among shrubs and low hanging branches from the established oak trees residing above. This playgroup has been up and running since the early 1980’s. For some thirty years, young children have found their feet in these nurturing surrounds. Parents too have honed their skills in this environment that lends itself to comfort and creativity, camaraderie and friendship.

“We sit on the veranda up there, and the kids will play down here, and we can watch over from afar. It’s been good fun,” said Joh Skelton happily, a committee member and mother of two.

Belgrave Lake Park Cottage Playgroup has a homely feel. It has a relaxed feel. Old photographs hang on the walls. Comfortable couches beckon breastfeeding mothers to take a seat, to rest. There is always someone offering a cup of tea from the kitchen nook. “Whoops, I think I drank yours! Who’s for another cup?”

A cupboard off to the side leads to a room burgeoning with toys: a mini shopping trolley, puzzles, dress-ups, kid-sized cash registers, odds and ends. There are different cubbies dotted around the grounds. A boat resides in the garden and not far away there is a climbing wall, a slide and a market stall, or it could be an ice cream shop. Out the front a few children wander through the indigenous inspired sensory garden. A statue of a frill neck lizard is hidden among the native plants. Discoveries here are aplenty. There are quiet areas, books and different textured surfaces for the kids to explore. Sometimes the playgroup goes on walks in the abundant natural surrounds. Down the hill there is a sprawling park full of tweeting birds. The learning opportunities sprout and grow like weeds that have been left to run wild.

Above all, there is a generosity of spirit here, and a sense of community.   

“It is a beautiful space where the kids just play, everything is fenced in, you’re out on the deck, it’s beautiful. Nobody ever wants to leave which is a bit of a problem,” said playgroup attendee Jen with a laugh.

“We have had our kids’ birthdays here and lots of our friends. Half of our friends have had their kids’ birthdays here.”

“Joh had a kid’s birthday party that went for eight hours once. They ended up getting pizza at 8pm at night. It started at 12pm.”

The playgroup has a great atmosphere, and this is set off by the sense of fun, stemming from the committee. There are regular parents’ evenings with a strong focus on kicking back, acquiring new skills and establishing connections.

“There are four parent evenings a month,” said Joh.

Thought goes into these evenings. They have had a watercolour evening run by Zoe Eley, a local artist, and soon they will have a night featuring finance with another parent. They are empowering one another by lending their skills. They have a foosball table and a table tennis table. They bring a plate and share a glass of wine. They share and continue to build experience during their precious child rearing years. 

The parents remark how these evenings are wonderful for their mental health and reenergise them for home life. It can give them a new focus or perspective. It can help to build a sense of self and foster their identity. They can hash out problems and have a laugh. It’s good for them and this feeds down to their children. 

“We do two for non-primary carers which is actually just dads at the moment,” said Joh.

This is called Spousemates.

“We started that because there were lots of dads that said, ‘You have all these friends you see for four hours every week and talk about parenting. You’ve got mates’ and they didn’t have anyone because they work and then they come home and then they have stuff to do. It was hard for them to meet people going through the same things.”

The thing that this playgroup does well is the casual nature of it. Joh said it is really affordable so people can come if they feel like it or give it a miss if they don’t.

“It’s not like a dance class or a swimming class which costs $25 we have to get in the car and get there no matter.”

That stress is removed, and as such, people enjoy dropping in and look forward to catching up.

There are around 50 families attending the playgroup. People keep coming, keep turning up.

Naturally Joh has concerns, about the upkeep and the motivation of volunteers, but she has been pleasantly surprised by those willing to pitch in.

“Winnie is now five, when she was a couple of months old I joined the committee and every year I think, nobody is going to join this, everyone is working, everyone is too busy, who is going to join the committee- but then people come along and other people put their hands up and I think, ‘It’s happening we are going to keep going. We are going to be the ones who end the group, we’re going to be the last committee’, but it never is.”

For thirty years people have been helping on the sidelines, but like anything, it requires work.

“It is a hard hustle to fit this in,” said Joh.

“Unless you are on the committee you may not understand how much effort goes into running it.”

“The great thing about this playgroup, which has been our saving grace, is that we hire the space out on the weekends and get money so that we can pay to have people do repairs. We still have working bees.”

They have also had bake sales and other such nifty ways to bring in some money. Things like the landline phone are essential as bushfires are a risk out here and the phone is also available to people in family violence situations. That costs $500 a year so they raise funds to support this in any way they can.

“We have definitely tried to do things that aren’t just for playgroup members, we have information nights, to try and keep this space used, because we have got it, thankfully, really cheaply from the council so we feel like it should get used as much as it possibly can.”

The history here runs deep. Joh discovered that the building used to be an old caretakers house that was attached to a caravan park. Joh met a lady at Malvern Library who was one of the founding members in the early 80’s. At the time, their mothers group needed somewhere to meet, and so the land and the building has since been an ongoing project.

“They renovated it to become a playgroup. It was the thing to do in the 70’s when playgroup was taking off.”

The simple pleasures of this playgroup hold it in good stead. The playgroup was inspired once more by the community spirit when people from the area came along for a nature walk and a picnic during Nature Play Week.

“I was really surprised, I think I saw it through Playgroup Victoria’s website, and we thought we would do some nature play. I expected that it would be people from our playgroup that came. We ran it at a normal Wednesday time and we got families that had come from 20 minutes away. I was just a walk through the bush around the other side of the lake with kids and we said bring a picnic, we didn’t have to do anything. That was lovely, it was so lovely to meet those families.”

Some of the families had English as their second language and Joh expressed how amazing it was to have their company and show them around the area.

“They said they loved it and will definitely come back for picnics!”

While many things have remained the same at playgroup over the course of time, Joh said that an online outlet has been a fantastic way to forge new connections.

“We found that the best way to get numbers up is being part of Facebook groups for parents.”

“People might be lonely, and we say, ‘Hey! Come and join our playgroup!’- and not even for a business reason, we say ‘just do it, it’s great, you should.’”

“It’s about finding people where they’re at, and often that’s where they’re at, online and feeling isolated.”

Jen said that Joh writes beautiful, hilarious community emails, also keeping others in the loop.

“It’s making it fun and valuable for people who are involved and wanting to do it,” said Joh.

Many of the parents explain how they have moved to Belgrave for cheaper rent or to buy and raise a family. The proximity to the shops, to playgroup and to one another has been invaluable.

Joh’s maternal health nurse has been in her role for around 30 years and she provided some wisdom early on.

“She is wonderful and she said, ‘Look, I have seen many groups. The groups that will last are the ones that choose a day, a place and a time and do it every week.’” 

“We are here, and it will be running.”

Of course, there are bumps in the road, but having someone close by to lend a helping hand, or a listening ear is an enduring reassurance that we all rely upon.  

There are many joyful memories forged here that truly will last through time. You can already see it in the children as they fossick around the garden, create imaginative games, tell stories and have the continuity of shared experiences.

As the families gather their children after a morning of play, a group of mothers with babies come in and settle on the couches.

“I think that has been the most valuable part of it- that we have sort of done the whole journey together, using each other as sounding boards,” said Rachel. 

“It has been awesome to have this space to transition over to from our mother’s group,” said Jess.

With any luck, many more generations will share this space and relish this chapter in the lives. 

Article by Sinead Halliday