What’s not to love?

You won’t hear a bad word about Docklands from Joh Maxwell.

After moving to the area with her husband Alan almost six years ago, Joh simply can’t get enough of all that it has to offer.

The pair initially decided to move to Docklands because they both worked in the CBD and the daily commute from the Peninsula meant their quality of life was disappearing.

After eight months of living in the Docklands during the week and travelling back to the Peninsula each weekend Alan and Joh decided to settle in Docklands full-time.

“We’d get to Friday night and there would be things going on and we’d be going home. We were missing out on too much,” Joh said.

Their two adult children said they would never last living in Docklands. “The kids only gave us six months,” Joh said.

Having proved their kids wrong, the pair is now deeply involved in the Docklands community.  

They opened Tours on Trikes in Bourke Street last year and Joh is an executive on the Docklands Chamber of Commerce.

“I joined the Chamber of Commerce because we were opening a business down here and because I have a big belief that you only get out of a community what you put in,” she said.

For Joh the community is one of the best parts about living in Docklands. She can’t understand people who describe Docklands as cold and isolated.  

According to Joh, these are two things it definitely isn’t and she thinks those who say it is can’t really have experienced Docklands.

“It’s a real community,” she said. “I know more people in Docklands than I knew when I lived on the Peninsula.”

Joh thinks that the reason Docklands is such a friendly community is because it’s a developing area.  “Everybody that moves to Docklands is new so everyone is prepared to say hello and have a chat. There are not many locals you see out and about who don’t smile or nod their heads as they walk by,” Joh said.

Joh also loves the vitality of Docklands. “There’s always something to see and do,” she said.

In between sporting events, social events, walking along the waterfront and visiting the different precincts of Docklands, Joh keeps herself very busy.

“We have the best of both worlds in Docklands,” Joh said. “We have the city on one side, the water on the other and everything in between.”