Lawn mowing in Mickleham

About Mickleham

T&G Insurance bought 26 km² here in the early 1980s for a township it called Mt Ridley, and the first blocks were released in 1997 as 1 to 4 hectare lots. The Mt Ridley homestead of 1850 became Hume Anglican Grammar in 2008. Then the estates arrived. The ABC described Mickleham as Australia's fastest-growing suburb in 2018, and it now has several residential estates and six schools. The old post office had run from 1 February 1862 to 1967; a second one at Konagaderra, near Deep Creek, lasted from 1913 to 1920.

Deep Creek is on one side and Merri Creek on the other. Mt Ridley, an extinct volcano about 4 km east, was a viewing point for Hume and Hovell in 1824. Mickleham Forest Park keeps native grasses and red gums. A bushfire in 2014 destroyed about 20 homes. A lawn on a street finished in the last few years is new turf. Cut it at 60-70 mm for its first two summers and never take more than a third of the leaf.

Hume City Council's nature strip policy asks the resident for regular mowing, edging, weeding and litter removal on the strip; council does works only to make safe and reinstates soil, not turf. Hume plants over 5,000 street trees a year; residents may not plant their own. The green bin is fortnightly, food and garden together, 140 L or 240 L, included in the kerbside charge since 1 July 2024. A 240 L bin is small next to a 1997 Mt Ridley lot of a hectare or more.