100 years ago
7 September 1922
Electric Train Service
A successful trial trip was made over the recently completed electric train section between Oakleigh and Dandenong on Friday 1 September 1 and an electric service between Dandenong and Melbourne was started on Tuesday last. This service, however, will be necessarily limited until the Springvale substation is brought into operation. The Springvale substation will not be competed for several weeks and until then only one electric train will be run between Oakleigh and Dandenong, this being supplemented by steam trains in order to maintain the present timetable. The full high-speed electric schedule will be introduced as soon as possible when the number of suburban trains to Dandenong will be increased for 16 to 22 per day each way. The electric service will reduce the time of the journey between Dandenong and Melbourne by 15 minutes.
50 years ago
5 September 1972
Jim has Plaza plan for the main street
Dandenong North Primary School teacher Jim Alexander reckons Dandenong people should have somewhere for public concerts and festive occasions. Jim has done a lot of thinking on this matter and come up with a straight-forward plan to provide a plaza area in the heart of the city. His plan would develop the wedge-shaped area currently used as car parking, into a partially grassed and partially paved public space. The area would sport backless seats, landscaped shrubbery and a raised platform for concerts. Car parking in the service road near the post office would be one-way and traffic would be limited to one-way only down Langhorne St to Walker St. “It would be somewhere to sit down or hold functions in the main city area,“ Jim commented last week. “There is nothing in Dandenong at all now.”
20 years ago
2 September 2002
Mayor wants to dump city title
Midway through his term as Greater Dandenong mayor, Paul Donovan last week reflected on his “six months as the city’s youngest civic leader”. He started by saying it may be time for Dandenong to dump the title of ‘Melbourne’s 2nd City’. He said it was difficult for people to identify with the title and it should be replaced with another that better reflected the region and its people. “We should have an image of our own rather than tying it in with another municipality.”
5 years ago
4 September 2017
World Class Study
An online search for the world’s best school led a Singapore father to bring his son to Dandenong North. Now eight year old Seth is not only excelling in his studies at Wooranna Park Primary School, he’s teaching other students. Principal Ray Trotter said people often remembered only a small portion of what they saw and heard. “We remember 95 per cent of what we teach,” he said. “If I tell you that you know things that other people want to know; it builds your self-esteem.” Teaching coding to other students, many older than him, was building Seth’s confidence and social skills.
Compiled by Dandenong & District Historical Society
