By Tanya Steele
The Dandenong Ranges community may have noticed Upwey now has some additional feature lighting twinkling away in the autumn night in two of the trees along the main street.
Monday 17 March saw the Upwey Community Group (UCG) officially celebrate the installation of the solar fairy tree lights, marking the occasion with a small gathering of those who made the project possible.
“Everyone is very excited it has come to fruition,” Upwey Community Group member Kerrie-Anne.
“This project happened before I started, and Bendigo Bank provided a grant for decorative lighting,” she said.
“We do a lot of projects, like murals on the bridge and running the Upwey Markets.”
Originally beginning before the COVID lockdowns, the project had been delayed until it was picked up again by a small team of volunteers from the group in 2024 and took around 12 months to get to this final stage.
Leadsun Australia, specialists in commercial solar lighting, provided support in managing the supply and installation of the lights and Stuart Templeton and Kieran McGrane from the company both live in Upwey and gave their time to work with UCG and Yarra Ranges Council to get the right commercial equipment for the job.
“It was a fortunate partnership that was formed with Leadsun and they worked with the UCG and Yarra Ranges Council very closely,” said Kerrie-Anne.
Leadsun Australia then worked with D and L Lighting Systems to install the solar engines and lights over five days and both companies have been involved in delivering similar community projects before.
UCG President Jacqui Buckland thanked all involved for their support.
“And for helping our group of volunteers make this possible,” she said.
Co-director of Bendogo Bank, Community Bank Upey and District, Ian Snell, thanked the local community.
“They continue to support the bank enabling them to support these community projects,” he said.
Residents and those beyond are now welcome to step into Upwey to see the trees lit up every evening.
“Some of the social media pages have been saying the lights bring joy and feel a bit magical – which is lovely,” said Kerrie-Anne.
Upwey Community Group is a volunteer-led community organisation and has more events planned on the horizon like Sunday Sounds on 30 March and the annual Upwey Archies art competition.
“We’re always looking for new members,” said Kerrie-Anne.
The group meet quarterly and people can find out more on their website at https://www.upweytownship.au/.
