Amanda Stone, Alison Clarke and Sam Gaylard
Cr Amanda Stone
Langridge Ward (Alphington, Fairfield, Collingwood, Abbotsford and most of Clifton Hill and Fitzroy). 2008-2009 Mayor.
Cr Amanda Stone is a long time Yarra resident, Greens member and well known community activist.
Amanda was the founding convenor of the Collingwood and Abbotsford Residents’ Association and was prominent in the campaign to save the Abbotsford Convent.
She understands planning issues as they affect residents, and as past committee member of Save Our Suburbs Victoria has extensive experience in lobbying the state government for sustainable planning and transport in Victoria.
Amanda has been a strong voice for protection of the Yarra Corridor and other environmental assets within the City of Yarra. She understands the role of local government and was a member of the City of Yarra’s Environment Advisory Committee before being elected to Council.
Professionally, she has worked for the Education Department in secondary schools as a teacher, welfare co-ordinator, assistant principal, and as a teacher educator both in Australia and overseas. She is currently a board member for an aid organisation and involved in an environmental and educational project in southern rural India.
Amanda believes strongly in the importance of preserving our connection to the natural environment, both for our own wellbeing and for the future of the planet and is committed to preserving Yarra’s liveability for all residents.
Amanda is working to improve sustainable transport options and and fight against new freeways/expressways or road tunnels through Yarra. She is working to protect Yarra’s built and natural heritage, including the Yarra Corridor, and supporting residents and businesses to tackle climate change at a local level.
Amanda truly believes in thinking globally and acting locally, and knows that local government is where real action can occur. She is a member of Council’s Finance and Human Services Committee, its Aboriginal Advisory Group, Live Music Working Group and Performance Review Subcommittee, sits on the Collingwood Children’s Farm Management Committee and the Northern Alliance for Greenhouse Action, and is the alternate delegate to the Metropolitan Waste Forum.
Cr Sam Gaylard
Nicholls Ward (Carlton North, Fitzroy North and parts of Clifton Hill and Fitzroy)
Sam Gaylard is a Greens and community activist who is passionate about the role local government should play in the fight against climate change.
Sam has over 30 years of experience as a social worker and manager in local government and the community sector. For twelve years, he represented workers in these two sectors as an industrial officer with the Australian Services Union.
Sam was the Executive Officer of an organisation concerned with third (majority) world development issues and more recently was a project evaluator of an Australian Government vocational education aid program in the Philippines.
Sam is an enthusiastic activist well known in his community. He is on the North Fitzroy School Council and previously was the chairperson of Holden Street Neighbourhood House. He was the community representative on the North Fitzroy Library Review in 2004 and a member of the City of Yarra Community Development Advisory Committee in 2005 and 2006.
Sam has been a Yarra resident for more than 30 years. He lives with his partner and their four children in North Fitzroy. He is a member of Council’s Planning, Environment and Infrastructure Committee, Bicycle Advisory Committee and Community Gardens Advisory Committee, and represents Council on the Yarra Energy Foundation.
Cr Alison Clarke
Melba Ward (Richmond, Burnley and Cremorne)
Alison is the current Mayor. A Speech Pathologist who has worked mostly with people with disabilities and in schools, both in Australia and the UK, she has also worked as an ESL teacher, both here and in Mexico, and holds a Masters degree in Applied Linguistics.
Alison has a long history of community activism. As President of the Lincoln Institute Student Union in the 1980s, Alison opposed building a car park for students on part of the Collingwood Children’s farm’s land. She joined the Fitzroy High School occupation team, sleeping overnight at the school for much of 1993 to ensure it wasn’t sold off.
On the Philippines Resource Centre board in the 1990s, she helped raise awareness of environmental and social injustice in the Philippines. She has also been active in peace, development aid, refugee rights and sustainable transport campaigns, and a member of her trade union’s state executive.
Alison joined the Greens in 2001, and has been involved in local and statewide leadership positions. In order to focus on the role of Mayor, she will work only half a day per week in her speech pathology practice during 2011.
Alison keeps fit by riding her bike. She travelled in Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Latin America instead of buying real estate, so she’s familiar with many cultures, and with renting and wondering whether she and her partner will ever be able to buy, like nearly 50% of Yarra residents.
Alison is on Council’s Disability Advisory Committee, Environment Advisory Committee, Audit Committee, Performance Review Subcommittee, Business Advisory Group and Committee for Women and represents Yarra at the Inner Melbourne Action Plan Implementation Committee, the Municipal Association of Victoria, the Metropolitan Waste Forum, Mayors for Peace and the Friends of Baucau Inc. (which maintains the friendship relationship between the District of Baucau in East Timor and the Cities of Yarra and Darebin). She is also Council’s alternate delegate to the Metropolitan Transport Forum.
There is also information about us on the City of Yarra website, along with our Council contacts and colleagues. Click here to visit the City of Yarra website Councillors’ page
