By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
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A FEDERATION Square-style big screen is set to come to Dandenong after a $6 million federal grant was announced last week.
The public video screen had been an unfunded part of Greater Dandenong Council’s $62 million municipal building project on the corner of Lonsdale and Walker streets.
The screen will be part of a civic square that is expected to host crowds of up to 2500 for special telecasts such as World Cup matches.
It will be part of a project that includes a regional library, council centre, cafes and a conference centre. The council last week said the grant would not reduce the $47 million of loans to fund the project.
Regional Australia Minister Simon Crean said the project received a Regional Development Australia Fund grant because of its “clear long-term regional benefits”.
Some of the benefits included 63 jobs in retail and hospitality each year, which would generate 24 further jobs, Mr Crean said. He expected the commercial-social hub would be a drawcard for residents from the Latrobe Valley and Gippsland.
He said the project was important for Melbourne’s “second city”, which was expected to grow from 140,000 to 210,000 residents in the next 20 years.
“It’s the realisation that you’ve got to be more than just a place to live and work. It has to have that liveability factor too,” Mr Crean said.
He talked up Dandenong’s prospects as an inland freight terminal, linking the Gippsland, Bunyip and La Trobe food bowls and the Asian export market.
The $1 billion RDAF grant program was bankrolled by the recently-passed $11 billion mining tax, with three further rounds of funding to come, Mr Crean said.
The council will take over the site on July 2, with demolition expected to start in September.
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