Fitzroy Football Club

(incorporating the Fitzroy Reds)

"ORGANISING meetings, rounding up business owners and drumming up enough enthusiasm to get people to actually come to meetings... Who in their right mind would take on the responsibility of starting a traders' association?

Getting traders in a shopping strip to join forces and eventually contribute a levy to marketing a street is no easy feat. But so far, Anthony McGregor doesn't seem to be having any troble.

It certainly helps that the association's visionary is the owner of an iconic business. McGregor, 32, can be found behind the counter of Broadway Quality Meats, a 53-year-old shop in Broadway, Reservoir.

McGregor is only the third owner of the Butcher store, which opened in the 1950s. A long-time Reservoir resident, McGregor remembers riding past the shop as a kid, on his way to the pool.

He admits there's a bit of pressure with the reputation of a half-a-century- old business to uphold, but says there's no great secret to success. "It's got a great name and a great standard. I just continue what I've been taught.

If I don't change, the shop won't change and people will still get what they've been coming to get for over 50 years," he says. And some people have been stocking their freezers from the butcher for that long.

There's Mrs Cameron, who has pushed her trolley down Broadway for her weekly shop at Quality Meats since it opened. She only recently moved away, McGregor muses.

Then there's a block of about 30 customers who have been buying their meat there for 40 years, and an even larger group who have shopped ther for 30 years.

Darebin councillor Peter Stephenson is among the buther's fans, regularly shopping there to feed his young family.

McGregor says he didn't set out to be a butcher. Initially, he dreamed of becoming a chef. But when McGregor applied for an apprenticeship at Quality Meats 16 years ago, he was embarking on a promising football career.

Within two years of starting work he was playing for Fitzroy in the AFL. For the next five years he worked part-time while committing to a strict training regime. After five years and 49 games, injuries forced McGregor out of the game just as Fitzroy was merging with the Brisbane Lions.

Does he wish he'd continued? "It would have been nice," he says, quietly. But:"Too many snapped hamstrings and knees and concussions."

But if there's one thing AFL taught him, it was discipline. "I think it teaches you hard work, which I'm hoping I can transfer (to Broadway)," he says, nodding towards the street.

With the help of Darebin Council, McGregor recently secured a grant to fund the establishment of a traders' organisation under the State Government's Streetlife program.

Last week the association moved a step closer with a meeting of 24 traders. Next week, the wider public will be invited to share ideas for beautifying Broadway and lifting its profile.

McGreogr wants banks and a post office on Broadway to help the srip compete with nearby Edwardes Street, which has four banks, a major supermarket and a "fantastic" traders' association.

Broadway's Streetlife facilitator Sally Jamieson says without people with a longstanding passion and interest in the area, change will never happen. "People like Anthony are fabulous to have in a strip," says Jamieson.

"People who put their hand up to say, 'I've found some extra time to put into the street'. They are people that make the difference."

A Broadway Community Think tank for local residents and retaileers will be held at the Broadway Cafe, February 22, 4-8pm. To RSVP, call Sally Jamieson on 9230 4418."

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