Who is Dr Holt?

My name is Brenda Holt and I worked in university residential colleges for 22 years in Melbourne. Wherever I go, people seem to think I just got off the plane, but I've actually lived here for 34 years.

Simon and I have mostly lived in the city since 2006, and when we were looking at buying a new place in 2019, we started looking at places in the city. We found this place at Escala in the Docklands and loved its concept. We purchased off the plan in 2019.

When we told people we were going to buy off the plan in Docklands, they thought we were crazy. However, we love the Docklands. I love being so close to the water and I love the ‘three fingers’ of Docklands. You know, you've got this side on New Quay, the middle section of Victoria Harbour where the library is, and then the Yarra’s Edge side.

I work in Bentleigh and Dandenong for a charity, called State Schools’ Relief, which provides uniforms and shoes for disadvantaged kids in state schools. When I go to Bentleigh, I go on public transport and I’ll walk to the station, and follow the river around past Crown all the way to Flinders Street Station. It’s beautiful, the highlight of my day.

It's one of those amazing charities that does incredible work behind the scenes. Its whole philosophy is to bring dignity to young people who can't afford a school uniform. What usually happens is that someone in the school will notice, very quietly order for the child, and then we deliver to the school and it's given anonymously. So, no one’s ever heard of us but it's a huge organisation and we’re mostly funded by the state government.

We also run a Glasses for Kids programme for Prep to Grade Three in the 360 most disadvantaged primary schools in Victoria. We screen them for eyesight issues and provide glasses for those who need them. I feel proud to be able to do that kind of work with State Schools’ Relief.

I grew up on a farm in a disadvantaged area and was the first in my family to go to university. Most of the people that I went to school with worked in one of the four prisons that my town is well known for. So, it was a pretty tough town to grow up in.

In the US, unless you are from a wealthy background or you win a scholarship, you don't go to university. The only people I knew who had a degree growing up were my teachers. So, when I won a scholarship, it was like winning the lottery.

I have seen the difference that one person can make in the life of a child. That's how I wound up working in university residential colleges. Back when I started a lot of rural and regional students came to Melbourne Uni through special access schemes. They were usually first-in-family, just like I had been, so it was a real privilege to walk with them and normalise that experience.

One of the things that most surprised me is that we can actually get really good coffee in Docklands! Having lived in the CBD and Carlton for such a long time I'm very picky, but we have two really good places to get coffee that are super close. Coco bei is excellent and Daybreak Cafe is great, too.

Another thing is how quiet it is here. You’ve got the benefits of the city, and you have the quietness of a suburb. I think that's quite unique, and everything is really at your fingertips. We go into the CBD a lot, so we either catch the tram because it's literally at our front door, or we just walk in. I don't think a lot of people realise that we're super close to the freeway, either. Our son lives in Brunswick and it takes us 11 minutes to get to his house.

I've been quite involved in Escala but due to work, I haven't been as involved in wider Docklands as I’d like to aside from just trying to support local businesses. I have been involved a bit with the Community Garden, in Victoria Harbour and helped with a few working bees and open days.

We will retire here when we stop full-time work. There are a lot of wonderful people here. It's a very multicultural neighbourhood, and very educated. Not that I was looking for a place that had a lot of education, but you know, it just amazes me. Every person I've met has multiple degrees and has led such an interesting life.

They're super impressed it's in the free tram zone and they love the water and the sunset. We’ll often have people in our home for dinner and they really enjoy standing out on our balcony, watching the sunset over the water. I mean, it's pretty impressive.

The favourite cafés we love are Cocobei and Daybreak Café.

We walk around the water a lot. We've often gone and sat in that middle bit on the docks and just, you know, watch people. Or we’ll go along the promenade and sit and watch the water, watch the boats, it’s just so gorgeous. We also love the Lorimer St side, we used to take our kids there when they were little and we were living in the CBD. There are some fantastic parks in Docklands, too.

We enjoy going to the Library at the Dock. I love that it’s so close, and it has incredible amenities. If you sew, or solder, or whatever, there are so many different arts and crafts that you can do there.

You can live in the city, have all the benefits of the city, and have beautiful water right next to you, with no noise!

I think just about the richness of apartment living. We raised our kids in apartments, and there's so much richness to be found there. I think that's a secret. A lot of Melburnians think that in order to live, they need to live in a house with a yard, and I just think you really miss out on so much when you do that.

I think sometimes it's more isolated in the suburbs. It’s just community all the time here, and we've made such good friends. It's been a very rich experience so far.

Docklands is one of the prettiest parts of the City of Melbourne plus where else in Melbourne can you go to the ice rink? It’s a super cool thing to go ice skating and where else in Melbourne can you do that?