Insults fly over Mr Pig

By Kelly Yates
RESIDENTS are pushing Greater Dandenong Council to bring back the city’s landmark, Mr Pig.
Formerly property of the Dandy Bacon Company, Mr Pig is Victoria’s oldest animated neon sign.
He used to be on display above the Dandy Bacon butcher shop on the corner of Foster and Lonsdale streets but has been pushed aside to make way for the oversized advertising billboards and now resides in the Dandenong market car park.
A Dandenong resident for 40 years, Ron Gurney said Dandenong Council was not interested in historical pieces.
“They destroyed them all, the Drill Hall and the 400-year-old tree have both gone,” Mr Gurney said.
He said he can’t understand why Victoria’s oldest animated neon sign is not heritage listed.
“Mr Pig is older than the Nylex sign in Richmond. He should have been the first to be heritage listed,” he said.
“He does warrant protection.”
Greater Dandenong Council received the pig from the Dandy Bacon Company and have kept it in storage in the Dandenong market car park.
Council said the intention was to move the pig to a prominent position when the development of the Dandenong market was completed.
Mr Gurney said council just stuck it in the car park.
“He’s all alone, the isolated poor old devil; we’ve got to get him back so he can once again welcome the public into Dandenong,” he said.
Residents aren’t the only ones up in arms.
Greater Dandenong Councillor Roz Blades wants the pig back on Main Street.
“I would rather have the pig back on Lonsdale Street than the advertising sex signs,” Cr Blades said.
She said she’d had enough of the explicit sex signs in Dandenong.
“Council should have complete control over the signs but we don’t; we have control over the size of them but no control of what’s on them,” she said.
“It’s outrageous and ludicrous.”
Cr Blades said council was trying to make Dandenong a better place to live, work and play but the signs are just offending families.
“I’m very broad minded about most things but enough is enough with these signs,” she said.
Cr Blades said she was going to take the matter up with the municipal association of Victoria.