Osbornes say farewell to Docklands

By Tanina Osborne

After five years of living on the 28th Floor of Tower 4 at Yarra’s Edge, Neil and I are saying farewell to neighbours and friends.

The experience of living here has been life-changing and the friendships we have made will last long after we leave.

We moved into Docklands in October, 2004 with a nine-year-old boy and a 16-year-old cat. We decided that a home office for our advertising and photography businesses would be great in the city but had no idea how we would fit in. We also had Neil’s seven and eight-year-old kids over every second weekend. This was going to be a challenge.

At first, I thought that city people would be snobs.  How wrong I was. City people wear old trackies around their apartments too! Within a few weeks we met so many people at the cafes, the gym, in the restaurants, even in the lifts.

The feeling of belonging to a great community grew strong and we joined local clubs and got involved with many businesses and social groups in the Docklands area. I struggle to walk to the gym in Tower 1 without stopping three or four times to have a chat to someone I know and you can always go to a café on your own and be sure to meet up with a neighbour from one of the towers.

Being near the water and within walking distance of just about everything is brilliant. We both joined the Melbourne Outrigger Canoe Club based at North Wharf and now compete internationally in the sport. Who would of thought living in the city would expose us to a fantastic water sport?

For anyone thinking of moving to Docklands, don’t think too hard about the decision, just do it! You will love the lifestyle, the people, the proximity to everything and you will fall in love with Melbourne.

We hope to come back to Docklands to live again one day, but for now we would like to say thank you to all our friends and clients here and hope we see you regularly. We will still be singing at Curves Restaurant and Bar every Sunday afternoon, so don’t think you’ll be rid of us!

And thank you to Shane Scanlan who gave me the opportunity to write some articles for the Docklands Community News.