Julian Reynolds is a Keilor Downs local who received the 2025 mayoral appreciation award for his ongoing volunteer work cleaning areas in Brimbank polluted with rubbish. He spoke to Sam Porter about the community and his volunteer work.
What’s your connection to Brimbank?
A somewhat short one really. I moved to Keilor Downs from Diamond Creek in Melbourne’s east in May 2018 with my wife. We moved to Keilor as it is a nice green area only 15 kilometres to the city with great transport connections.
What do you like about where you live?
We wanted to move to a green area that had good connections to transport and freeways and a relaxed vibe. We found a beautiful slice of suburbia and we love where we live. Living in a mixed multicultural hub is a real delight. Friendly people, good facilities with Brimbank Aquatic and Wellness Centre and a community that comes together to celebrate our unique qualities.
What, if anything, would you change about where you live?
I love where I live but it disappoints me when I see how much rubbish is around the area. There is a lot of dumping and general litter. Keilor is a windy area and it doesn’t make it easy when we have strong winds blowing things about. Also we have a high concentration of fast food outlets in our area and the litter coming from these businesses doesn’t do us any favours.
Where is your favourite local place to spend time?
Brimbank Park is my favourite local hang out. Lumbar Café is a real delight with great food, people and amazing staff in a beautiful spot.
What’s something people would be surprised to know about you?
I work in equipment finance and enjoy helping people achieve their dreams and grow their businesses through financing equipment. I also enjoy collecting a lot of different things: wine bottles, corks, vinyl records, magnets, stamps – the list goes on.
What prompted you to start community clean-ups?
I wanted to see the community come together a bit more to clean Brimbank. We have a vibrant hub and I think the missing link is the conduit in bringing it all together. I live by the mantra that “the standard you walk past is the standard you accept” and I can’t walk or drive past a dirty spot without wanting to clean it up. It pains me to see Brimbank look untidy and unkept and hence I do my bit to lead by example and demonstrate civic pride by donating my time to keep it clean. Lots of people in the community volunteer and offer their time in other ways and this is my way of giving back.
How did you feel to receive the mayoral appreciation award this year?
To receive the Brimbank mayoral award was an absolute honour. It certainly was not expected and it made me feel honoured and humbled to receive the recognition from council and the community. The Brimbank community have been fantastic in getting behind me and now I would like to take this swell of ground support to the next level and get some meaningful initiatives going in the area with the support of Clean Up Australia and local schools and organisations.
