Looking Back

DandyFresh CEO Rod Kerley at the Bangholme site. 151679_01. Picture: STEWART CHAMBERS

100 years ago

7 September 1922

Level Crossing Question

Mr Miscamble one of the Victorian Railway Commissioners visited Dandenong on Friday afternoon last to confer with members of the shire council and progress association regarding subways or an overhead bridge at the level crossing in Brighton Rd (Cheltenham Rd today) and also providing a bridge over the line for vehicular and stock traffic to eliminate the nuisance of stock being driven through the town to the market. The result of the Commissioner’s visit is that he is prepared to put the following proposals before his fellow commissioners:

• Brighton Rd pedestrian level crossing to be closed and a pedestrian subway to be put in at that crossing.

• An overhead vehicular bridge to be constructed across the western side of the Dandenong Bacon Factory, connecting Jones Street. (Station Estate) with Bennett Street.

• A subway to be put in instead of the pedestrian level crossing on Hammond Rd to connect with Foster Steet.

50 years ago

12 September 1972

Social Worker ‘local issue’

Local councils and churches must share the responsibility for providing the community with a social worker, the federal minister for Social Services, Mr Wentworth said in Dandenong on Friday. Speaking in the town hall at a meeting organised by local MHR Mr Len Reid, Mr Wentworth placed the controversial social worker issue right in the council’s lap when he said. “This matter is not the whole responsibility of the central Government.” Mr Wentworth added: “A person is a citizen of Australia, Victoria, and Dandenong, whether they be a taxpayer or pensioner. Local and voluntary bodies as well as the churches are responsible in this matter. I would shudder to think what would happen if we in Canberra tried to cover every social worker in the country.”

20years ago

9 September 2002

Council backs levy on Plastic Bags

Greater Dandenong Council has backed a call for a 15-cent levy on plastic bags to help control litter and save the environment. Mayor Paul Donovan said residents used more than 37,000 plastic bags a year and the bags were one of the biggest sources of litter and environmental problems in the city. Cr Donavan said a similar levy introduced in Ireland resulted in a 90% drop in plastic bag usage. “Most plastic bags end up in landfills, roadsides or in local waterways like the Dandenong Creek.“

5 years ago

11 September 2017

Market wedged

The State Planning Minister is poised to personally intervene to block a Bangholme produce market. In June Greater Dandenong Council approved the Dandy Fresh application to develop green wedge zoned land in Harwood Road and bring 200 jobs to the region. The use and development proposed for the site are not prohibited in the green wedge but there are questions about the appropriateness of its scale and form in the area. The proposal also sits within a buffer to Melbourne Water’s Eastern Treatment Plant, which is in a place to minimise the public’s exposure to odour.

Compiled by Dandenong & District Historical Society