On October 16th 1991 a Public Meeting was held at the Northcote Library to establish the University of the Third Age in Northcote. The meeting was launched by the Mayor of Northcote Cr. Phillip Bain and chaired by Eileen Capocchi. Guest speakers included Phil Slattery and Dame Myra Roper. This meeting was the result of enthusiastic work by a dedicated group who widely publicised the idea of U3A and its benefits to the over 50’s in our community. Amongst the 55 people who attended were, staff of Northcote and Collingwood Councils, NEMCOA, SPAN and local residents. Encouraged by this response we decided our first course “The History of Christmas and Christmas Music” would be a good start and it proved successful it was held in the Northcote Library Community room.
Over the 10 years U3A Darebin has changed its name reflecting the alterations in the local community. In the beginning we were known as INTAL for Inner Northern Third Age Learning because we feared the title university might be intimidating for our members. At the start of 1994 we became Northcote U3A. Then in mid -1994 we changed to U3A Northcote Incorporated. In 1996 the Councils of Northcote and Preston amalgamated to form the City of Darebin. This meant that we too needed a name change so we became U3A Darebin Inc.
Since then U3A has continued to flourish and provides an invaluable service to the community.
If you would like to find out more, please visit U3A’s website
