Local Stories

On Friday the 14 th November 2025, Kensington Neigbourhood House celebrated half a century of continuous community support. Over 200 people of all ages gathered to share stories, eat great food, create art, dance, sing and celebrate the history of this very special place. It is impossible to put into words the warmth, friendliness and joy of the night. There was a real sense of honouring our history while also looking forward to our future. Ellen Sandell MP set the scene by

Most of us have collections of old photos and document stored away, awaiting the time we will finally get our act together to scan and preserve them. Kensington Neighbourhood House is no different. However, our collection is a lot bigger than the average household’s and spans half a century. With the help of a Local History Grant (thank you Public Records Office of Victoria) we engaged Dr Jill Barnard – local historian extraordinaire – to sort out our very chaotic archives. J

Sometimes it seems that every second house in our neighbourhood has a builder’s sign on the front fence. Tradies vie for space on narrow streets and down laneways as the cottages of Kensington are steadily renovated and extended to meet the changing needs of their occupants. In May 2025, Kensington Neighbourhood House joined the renovation bandwagon, starting much needed work on our downstairs bathroom and back deck. Kensington Neighbourhood House was extended upwards in 1992

One of the great things about working within a community is that for every problem identified, community members can nearly always come...

All across Victoria you’ll find neighbourhood houses and community centres that are also “Learn Locals”. It’s a little known term to...

Do you know who “owns” Kensington Neighbourhood House? Out of curiosity, we asked this question in our recent participant survey. Nearly...

Cultural Diversity Week was celebrated a little late at our house this year, but it was worth the wait! On Tuesday 26 March, Kensington...

“Just do it online.” Easier said than done! With core services increasingly moving to remote delivery, many community members are...

When Kim Lan moved to Kensington with her husband and six children, her first impression was that Australia seemed strange compared to...

An advocate for public housing rights, mother of four boys, long term crossing supervisor, and active community member, Sandra has lived...

We didn’t need to think twice about who should be our Volunteer of The Year for 2022. Kaye Uiterwyk was the unanimous choice. Kaye began...

Where do we start? Watching Ayan find and follow her dreams has been a constant inspiration to us here at KNH. Starting as a student in...

Pam began volunteering at Kensington Neighbourhood House in 2018 in our Family Literacy Program. As a retired English as an additional...

Hoa and Thai are married and have lived in Kensington for almost 20 years. They came to came to Australia as refugees from Vietnam in...

Kensington resident, Hamida was born in Somalia. She and her family moved to Melbourne in 2010 and since then she has been an active...

Paul owns and runs local café Grounded House at 499 Macaulay Road. He was born and bred in Kensington. His parents, Tony and Lina, lived...

Erika Lodge is the President of the 78 Seniors Club, a resident social seniors group on Kensington public housing estate. Erika is...