Goya Dmytryshchak
Former mayor of the former City of Williamstown John Pearson talks to Goya Dmytryshchak.
What’s your connection to Hobsons Bay?
We’ve lived in Williamstown since the start of 1977. I was a councillor and mayor of Williamstown. I was a councillor from ’88-’94 and mayor ’92-’93.
You volunteered, delivering meals on wheels. How have things changed for you with COVID-19?
I was allowed to deliver until I had a 70th birthday and there was more risk for people over 70, they thought, and the council didn’t want to put people at risk so then it stopped. It’s one of these things that you do during the week, and for me, it’s been voluntary work for quite some period of time. I did emergency relief and that had stopped – it didn’t really get going earlier during the year because of COVID, and now it’s restarted. Also, I help with Helping Hand Cafe at the Church of Christ in Williamstown and that had to stop, of course, being a cafe. So, all of a sudden, the things that kept you active during the week are gone. And the personal contact is reduced, as we’re all feeling.
What are some of your favourite places that you can still go to during lockdown?
We’ve got some very nice walks around Williamstown: the bay foreshore, the Esplanade and around there, around the Rifle Range and the wetlands. I can venture up to Newport Lakes but I haven’t.
What could be improved around Williamstown?
I get very uptight with speed humps. Something’s happening with the railway crossing at North Williamstown but the sequence of lights and boom gates for the trains are a bit ridiculous. You sometimes are waiting five minutes with boom gates down for no reason at all.
How are you saying socially connected at this time?
We do emergency relief – we’re allowed to do that a couple of times a week. So, there’s the people you work with on that, volunteers.
We had a Zoom meeting with some guys before and one guy showed his slides of a European trip. Zoom meetings have been good. With church, we do a church service and there’s some interaction there. Business meetings have been through Zoom. And contact with children and families is by Facebook … using your phone to have video contact with family has been nice.
What are you looking forward to doing when lockdown ends?
A good trip to the recycling centre with all the rubbish because we’ve tidied up around the place. Probably some family activities outside with the kids. And I guess, travel when we can and where we can in the future.
