Mayor’s Winter Sleep Out at Bella Vista Farm Park

Help raise funds and awareness to support homeless people in The Hills.

Event Details

About this event

Residents and business people from the Sydney Hills are invited to experience what it's like to sleep rough at the Mayor's Winter Sleep Out at Bella Vista Farm Park on Saturday August 23.

Mayor Byrne has backed the initiative of the Community Foundation of North Western Sydney (The Foundation) which is seeking to raise money and awareness to support homeless people in The Hills.

"Many residents are surprised to know that we do indeed have a problem with homelessness in the Sydney Hills," Mayor Byrne said. "It will certainly be a tough night for us out in the cold, but it's something I hope many people participate in."

The Foundation's President Gailsusan Clarke said that women and children seeking crisis accommodation were most in need.

"There are a lot of women and children that need accommodation as a result of domestic violence, often caused by drug and alcohol abuse," Ms Clarke said.

"The Mayor's Winter Sleep Out is all about helping as many people as we can through funds raised on the night."

One of the major drivers of the initiative, local businessman Jim Taggart, said that he was willing to have an uncomfortable evening for a good cause.

"If I have to have a night of discomfort then it's a small price to pay to get the message out and to help people," Mr Taggart said.

"I'm happy to be a part of this and I hope that the community really gets behind this and supports it by either coming on the night or making a donation."

Two ways you can participate:

You can sleep out in Bella Vista Farm’s historic packing shed for a tax deductible $200 donation – this offer is limited to the first 50 participants. 

To really rough it, you can sleep outside the shed for a tax deductible $100 donation.

Click Here to sponsor the Mayor Michelle Byrne

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Every person has a story…

Novotel Sydney Parramatta would like to introduce their newest and possibly most entertaining member of staff, Carl Herve, the hotel’s new Revenue Manager. Carl joins the hotel, with his passion for life, kind heart, humorous banter and musical talents.

With an immense background in the hospitality industry and atlas of world knowledge, Carl has proven to be a resourceful asset to Novotel Sydney Parramatta. His interest in travel and hospitality began at a young age, while living in Africa with his parents and brothers until the age of 16 years old; however it was not until back in his home country, France that he explored the opportunities of the hospitality industry.

Luckily enough for his career, France is also home to Accor, headquartered in Paris, the hotel group own, operate and franchise 3,600 hotels on 5 continents representing several diverse brands, from budget and economy lodgings to luxurious accommodation in exotic locations. This allowed for great career opportunities and it was at Novotel Caen France, where Carl’s training started as a Food and Beverage attendant before trying his hand at Reception in Ibis Marseille and Housekeeping department at Sequoia hotel, Paris, a 1000 room hotel.

After studying, Carl landed his first contract with Sofitel Montpellier, a luxury brand under the Accor umbrella, working at Reception before moving onto Ibis Barking, London. During his time in London, he worked as a Team Leader in Front Office, Reservations and Revenue. It was at his time at Ibis, that his interest in Revenue, strategic planning and the operations behind the scenes started. This led him to his role as Director of Revenue at St Regis, French Polynesia, before back to Paris as a Cluster Revenue Manager for Marriott.

However it was at the Marriott, France, where the story got even more exciting, as this is where his love story with Australia began. Carl met his lovely partner, Suzie, an Australian expat working in Reservations at the hotel and had been living in France for the past ten years. Back in Australia now and both working for Accor again, the couple patiently await the arrival of their first child.

What more is there to the well travelled Revenue Manager; it would have to be his musical talents. Singing and performing from a young age, Carl has many memories and stories to tell his new child. During his travel, he has recorded music videos and performed in bars and clubs using his stage name ‘Frank Lukani’. He describes his most memorable experience to be his performance of Cold Play’s Viva La Vida in front of 6,000 patrons at Caen Stadium, France.

From starting in the office at Novotel Sydney Parramatta, he has entertained with his random sing a longs, stories of his travel, abundance of delicious French crepes and a laugh you could probably hear echoing down Church Street. To experience and view his musical videos please visit ‘Frank Lukani Official’ on Facebook, Sound cloud and YouTube. Also make sure to check out his other creations, Novotel Sydney Parramatta’s Weekend escape package at www.novotelparramatta.com.au

“Conference at PARKROYAL Parramatta this winter and take advantage of our all INCLUSIVE 

$65.00 Winter Package which includes complimentary parking, data projector, free Wi-Fi and so much more.

Speak with the most experienced Meetings and Events Team in Parramatta today on:  

02 9685 0339 or email events.prsyp@parkroyalhotels.com." 

Offer valid until 31st August 2014.               

We have opened Stage One of our Richmond Road upgrade one month early and $7 million under budget.

Richmond Road is a key arterial road for Sydney’s North West Growth Centre. We have fast tracked the upgrade because of its importance to supporting new housing and job creation in Western Sydney.

Stage One provides two lanes in each direction and will slash travel times for Western Sydney motorists travelling on Richmond Road between Bells Creek and north of Townson Road at Marsden Park.
We have allocated $96 million for Stage Two of the upgrade which began this week and is expected to be progressively opened to traffic by the end of 2016.

Source: NSW Government

Construction will begin next month on a 340-space multi-storey commuter car park at Sutherland Station.

The free and untimed commuter parking spaces are part of more than $30 million worth of upgrades at the station, which also include a new lift and recently completed interchange upgrade.

Sutherland is a key interchange station for locals and commuters in the Illawarra, and these works will go a long way to help customers connect and move easily between different transport modes.

St George and Sutherland have been big winners under our Transport Access Program, with upgrades underway along the Illawarra Line. A major station upgrade is underway at Waterfall Station, with another huge upgrade announced at Oatley and Arncliffe and a commuter car park extension underway at Rockdale.

Source: NSW Government

In the third of our series on Rebuilding NSW, Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner discusses the proposed plans to fix regional infrastructure. 

This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve regional roads, provide access to world class health facilities and secure water supplies for our regional and rural communities.

Source: NSW Government

The number of buses with Opal climbs to 1,700 from next week as we switch on the service for every bus in the Eastern Suburbs.

The latest Opal roll out covers 580 buses which carry more than five million customers every month from areas including Randwick, Maroubra, Watsons Bay, La Perouse and Mascot.

This week 220 Transit Systems buses went live with Opal across 80 suburbs including Liverpool, Greystanes and Parramatta and Punchbowl Bus Services have gone live across 35 suburbs including Hurstville, Roselands and Bankstown.

Customers have taken more than 25 million journeys with Opal with 400,000 cards issued and thousands more signing up every week.

Source: NSW Government

The first section of the M5 West Widening Project will open to motorists in the next fortnight and is on schedule for final completion by the end of the year.

The $400 million project to widen the M5 West by a lane in each direction will cut congestion and improve travel times for motorists in South Western Sydney.

In the next fortnight, we will open to motorists commuting eastbound a third lane for a stretch of four kilometres from the Camden Valley Way eastbound entry ramp to the Georges River Bridge, Liverpool.

Shortly after, we will open an additional lane westbound, which will extend from Georges River Bridge in Liverpool to the Beech Road exit.

Source: NSW Government

NSW Premier Mike Baird officially opened the new Penrith one stop shop this week, whilst marking the one-year anniversary of the NSW Government’s new customer service agency, Service NSW. 

The opening of this centre also marks an important milestone with the completion of the initial Service NSW rollout – a total of 18 one-stop shops. 

Due to the success of Service NSW, we will expand its services over the next two years with a focus on increasing digital transactions to make it even more convenient for customers to do their business with us. 

This service centre is the third to open in Western Sydney – following Parramatta and Liverpool and demonstrates our commitment to grow services in this thriving region. 

Eight new service centres, including one in Blacktown, are now being planned for opening in the coming months with other innovative smart stores and kiosks to be trialled over the coming year. 

More than 3.5 million customers have so far been served by Service NSW with a customer satisfaction score of 98 per cent – unchanged since launch last year.

Source: NSW Government