Kingston Management Group and SEALIFE Melbourne Aquarium

For Julie Darray and the team at Kingston Management Group there’s no such thing as a too-hard basket.

With 15 years of strata industry management experience Ms Darray has all the skills needed to ensure strata communities run smoothly and says her team is committed to helping people resolve any issue, big or small.

“For every problem, there’s a solution,” Ms Darray said.

Kingston Management Group offers a range of services including owners’ corporation management, setting up owners’ corporations for developers, facility management, mediation and dispute resolution.

Ms Darray and her team of six have extensive experience in OC management, OC administration, OC accounting and customer relations.

The business has been operating in Docklands for the past four years and is based at Yarra’s Edge, where Ms Darray has worked managing developments in the precinct for the past 11 years.

Located close to the buildings it manages locally, Ms Darray said the office was a friendly place where owners felt welcome to pop in.

With a large meeting room, Kingston Management Group also makes its office available for OCs to use for AGMs and meetings.

Kingston Management Group aims to provide a high-level of service to OCs by listening to owners about what they wanted from a strata manager, maintaining and adding value and by assisting owners to care for their homes and investments.

“We can’t manage every building, but we can help to change the industry for the better,” she said.

According to Ms Darray, Kingston Management Group is all about doing that little bit extra for its clients.

“We try to resolve things straight away rather than adding it to a to-do list,” Ms Darray said.

Most importantly, Kingston Management Group prides itself on always doing the right thing by each OC it manages and gaining their trust.

“Honesty and integrity, that’s what we’re about,” Ms Darray said.

Kingston Management Group is available five days a week and also has an after hours emergency contact service.

For more information see http://www.kingstonmanagement.com.au or call 9676 2828

Discover an underwater world

Looking for something fun to do with the whole family these school holidays? Why not pay a visit to SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium?

Located just outside of Docklands, the aquarium is just a short tram-ride away and is home to one of Australia’s biggest oceanariums.

According to SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium exhibit manager Tereza Todd, the oceanarium contains 1200 aquatic animals, 60 species and 2.2 million litres of water.

The oceanarium is home to a range of animals from the tiny cleaner wrasse, which Ms Todd says is the smallest fish in the oceanarium.

According to Ms Todd, the wrasse can often be found cleaning the teeth of the largest animal in the tank, the giant grouper.

“We have a number of large marine animals in our oceanarium with the biggest being Mr G, our giant Queensland grouper,” Ms
Todd said.

“Weight approximately 250 kg and measuring around 2.2 m, the other underwater residents are under no illusion of who’s boss,” she said.

With such a range of animals living in the oceanarium, feeding time involves a number of different methods.

According to Ms Todd, pole feeding, where food is attached to a long pole, is used on bigger animals including sawfish, grey nurse shark, large eagle rays and giant grouper.

“We have a specialised metallic ringer that we use to attract our sandbar whaler sharks,” Ms Todd said. “They have become used to the special sound, which allows us to target feed them without getting hassled by the others.”

“A large bell is rung to attract our large smooth rays. Much like the sandbar whalers, these smooth rays have become accustomed to the sound of the bell, so each time the bell is rung they know it’s food time.”

For the rest of the animals in the oceanarium, a large bucket is filled with food and dropped from above, Ms Todd said.

“Visitors can often see this taking place throughout the day, there’s a food frenzy when we do the bucket drops.”

Ms Todd said the oceanarium was one of her favourite exhibits to work in at the aquarium as she loves diving and interacting with some of the large animals.

“Many of the animals in this exhibit have been here for a number of years and they have become quite friendly, which allows us to get up nice and close,” Ms Todd said.

“In the wild you simply can’t have this face-to-face experience.”

SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium is located on the corner of King St and Flinders St and is open 365 days a year.