The first edition of Merricks Matters was published in October 2001 as a joint initiative of the four community groups at Merricks. The first article was titled Our Community’s Voice and discussed the objectives of Merricks Matters.
Other articles in the first edition include the Magic of Merricks submitted by the Bill Carroll Reserve and shared a bit of history of the Reserve plus lists of birdlife and plants.
John Hollander was Commodore of the Merricks Yacht Club at that time and he contributed an article entitled Merricks: The Place to Be sharing a bit of history of the yacht club together with sailing plans for the season.
Another article announced the reduction in the speed limit on Merricks roads from 40 to 25 kph and the Foreshore Committee of Management contributed an article about working bees and (then) recent work on revegetation of the Surfies Steps, removing weeds and planting along the cliff top. It also foreshadowed the resurfacing of the toilet block walls!
Lisa Blundell was the first editor of the publication. Since then, the baton passed to many others without being dropped. Editors have included Meg Paul, John O’Neil, Jo O’Neil, Gai Wilson and Madeline Curtain, with our current editor Sharon Muhleisen keeping the newsletter coming. Undoubtedly, others will step in as time goes on. The copy of the first edition emerged from papers supplied by Jo O’Neil from John’s collection.
