By Tanya Steele
Healesvile Traders Incorporated has come together to vote for the formation of an official business and traders group for Heasleville on Tuesday 2 May.
The committee unanimously voted to incorporate the group and Nina Sturgess from Verso Books the newly appointed president said it is good that Healesville will have the traders group to provide a unified formal voice for businesses of the town.
“Healesville has had no official body in the town since 2016,” Ms Sturgess said.
“We initially started an informal group a few years ago, before Covid to communicate around events like Christmas shopping.”
The committee held the recent foundational meeting to cast the vote to incorporate and celebrated with other community business owners with a glass of wine afterwards.
The newly fledged group now has over 30 interested businesses, many of whom were present on the night with representatives from the Yarra Ranges Council and Casey MP Aaron Violi there also.
The group said getting everyone involved was a positive step and good for the community.
Covid had derailed the initial progress of the Healesville Traders, but the Yarra Ranges Council approached them to suggest they utilise some of the funding that was available for recovery in the business and financial group sector.
The unincorporated group has had the Healesville Rotary as their auspice, which has greatly assisted them in getting to this stage.
“It’s been really helpful and really instrumental in getting us up and running as well, we couldn’t have done it without the support of the Rotary,” Ms Sturgess said.
Having the backing of the Heasleville Rotary meant the group were eligible for round one of the Council’s business and traders led recovery grant.
Maria Konecsny of Gewürzhaus Herbs and Spices said that the official purpose of the group is to connect and support members to work together to strengthen the township and business community.
They said they hope to be incorporated within a week and have their first committee meeting very soon.
Thereafter they will meet regularly and get a website up and running and hope to get more businesses on board to join.
“We want to build value into the association, giving people really tangible reasons to belong to it,” Ms Sturgess said.
The Heasleville Traders would like to have community groups involved as well.
“Even though we have commercial interests, we are ultimately interested in the prosperity of the whole town and the whole community,” Ms Sturgess said.
Yarra Ranges Mayor Jim Child said the council recognises how important local businesses are to the community.
“Being a part of a business or trader group is a terrific opportunity to get involved, and really advocate for your business community,” he said.
The meeting bodes well for the future of Healesville and Ms Sturgress is thrilled the group has formed.
“It will make us a more resilient business community in the future,” she said.
