Dinesh Jayasuriya is an active community member, with many roles around Brimbank. He spoke to Ewen McRae.
What is your connection to Brimbank?
I live in Brimbank with my family and also work from here, running a sustainable engineering consultancy. Around seven years ago my wife and I decided to move here rather than other parts of Melbourne where we grew up. Our move was initially about investment and location, but since then we have put down roots and now feel we are an active part of the community.
What do you like best about the area?
Firstly, it’s location, location, location – train stations within walking distance and near enough to the CBD to allow quick travel for business meetings. Secondly, the community around Sunshine is quite diverse and that is reflected in the variety of authentic and reasonably-priced restaurants, as well as the variety of languages being spoken on the street.
What could make the area better?
Even though I love that we live in such a diverse community, it sometimes feels like we all live separately alongside each other rather than together as one community. For instance, silo-groups can form around shared ethnicities or language, or even whether residents grew up here or moved here later in life.
I believe a good way to break down these silos is to work together on simple things that affect us all like safety, kids, charity and keeping our neighbourhood clean.
So having more volunteers from a range of backgrounds working together in our community would make our area even better.
Where is your favourite place to go for a feed in Brimbank?
That is a difficult question to answer because there is so much food here that I enjoy, including a few great new cafes like Sadie Black in Albion.
My most visited places over the last six months are Fresh Chilli Deli (Sunshine) for banh mi, followed by DeGrill for barbecued goodness, Mango Tree for Sri Lankan snacks and Walia Ibex for the Ethiopian experience.
You’re an avid poster on Brimbank social media pages, what is it about Brimbank’s online community that stands out?
I love the self-deprecating humour of our online community – sometimes it cuts close to the bone but that just means that we care. I am also finding that the online community includes many newcomers to the area who are looking to make friends and get involved, which is really encouraging.
What other hats do you wear in the local community?
I am part of the Albion Action Group working to get traffic lights at Perth Avenue, the Sunshine Lions, the Brimbank Greens, the local father’s group, the 3020 Boardgamers group and the 3020 Facebook group. I am also working on two new community groups. The Brimbank Hackerspace is for those interested in ‘hacking’ high-tech and IT. The inaugural meeting is scheduled for Sunday, October 29 at the council building.
Details: brimhack@googlegroups.com
