A building is supposedly made of concrete, steel and glass… although ours seems to contain a generous amount of polystyrene too. A community, however, is made of people.
Over the years, our residents have shared far more than the walls and the courtyard. We’ve celebrated cultural holidays, events, welcomed new neighbours, watched children play and grow up together and looked out for one another.
When our building’s defects began to emerge, rather than allowing frustration to divide us, it brought us together. People with different backgrounds, professions and experiences volunteered countless hours to research, ask questions, attend meetings and support one another. Neighbours became friends, and friends became a team united by a common goal to protect the place we all call home and to advocate for safe, compliant, and legally constructed homes by holding developers, regulators, and government accountable.
There are families, retirees, singles, first home owners, tradespeople, carers, students, healthcare professionals each contributing in their own way.
What makes this building special isn’t the architecture or the location. It’s the people who choose to care about each other and who believe that a strong community can overcome even the biggest challenges.
We are more than an a collection of apartments. We are neighbours who have stood together, supported one another and created a community built on resilience, kindness and hope.
As residents of South Yarra Square, we aim to expose systemic failures in the building industry, demand enforcement of existing laws, and drive meaningful reform so no community is left living in defective and unsafe housing.
