Bob Malcolm can remember mapping the boundary that makes Keysborough and cannot understand why newcomers want to rename the suburb.
By Melissa Meehan
LONG time Keysborough resident Bob Malcolm says renaming parts of the suburb would be an insult to the Keys family – who the suburb is named after.
He said the area in question was steeped with pioneering history, with the Keys family the ones who developed the land.
“Roads and streets in the area belong to the Keys family,” he said.
“It would be an insult to the family and their descendants to even think about a change of name.”
As the former president of the Chandler Civic Association, Mr Malcolm remembers drawing the boundaries for the area, once known as Noble Park.
“The developers sold land with Keysborough as its name, because they would get more money for the blocks if they said it was Keysborough,” he said.
“So we had Parkmore Shopping Centre, Chandler High School, Keysborough Hotel and Camoora High School all with the Keysborough address when they were really in Noble Park.”
He said that because of this the association decided to ask the government of the time to change the northern boundary to the now accepted boundary.
“I remember it well, driving along with my wife, mapping out the new boundary that we hoped would be accepted by the government,” he said.
“It was.”
He said it was difficult to understand why people who had lived in the area for a short time would want to change the name of the suburb.
“There are a lot of us who are happy to live in Keysborough,” he said.
“So why not these few newcomers?”
