Looking Back

Mike Eleven with his mural of Aishwarya Pokruluri in Little India in 2018. 180663_02 Pictuere: GARY SISSONS

100 years ago

10 May 1923

Postal facilities

For some time past it has been considered that an improvement in the despatch of mails from Dandenong might reasonably be asked for. There is at present too great a lapse of time between the despatch of closing of the evening mail at 6pm and the closing of the mid-day mail at 12o’clock the following day. What is really required is a third mail from Dandenong during the day – say at 9.30am. At present correspondence posted at night-time lies in the Post Office and street letter boxes until mid-day next day, and does not reach Melbourne until the afternoon, some 16 hours after being posted. The postal business at Dandenong surely warrants a better service than this, and the despatching of a mail at an earlier hour in the morning, as suggested would be a decided convenience to business people especially, and would be certain to be in time for the city afternoon delivery, which is doubtful as regards the present mid-day mail.

50 years ago

8 May 1973

Al is set for the big week ahead

Everything is set for the biggest week in Dandenong’s history – the celebration of the city’s 100 years of local government. The celebrations begin next Sunday with a church service and a “back to” and close with a pageant of progress on Saturday week. The pageant will be almost the size of the famed Moomba procession and will take about two hours to pass. The City of Dandenong will conduct a tree planting campaign in district schools this week as part of the centenary celebrations. There will be something for everybody during the celebrations, a feature of which will be the publication by the Daily Journal each morning between Monday and Friday.

20 years ago

5 May 2003

Govt’s Medicare changes ‘a dud’

Federal Opposition Leader Simon Crean said the Howard Government’s new $917 million Medicare Package offers Casey general practice doctors no incentive to restore bulk billing. Mr Crean said the Governments idea of subsidising GP’s who bulk billed concession card holders – between $1 and just over $6 depending on what area they practise in – was not incentive enough. “We have spoken to the medical practitioners out here and they have told us that $1 is not going to be sufficient to get doctors back into bulk billing for concession card holders” Mr Crean said.

5 years ago

14 May 2018

A Bridge between cultures – it’s the writing on the wall

A Springvale raised artist is transforming a Dandenong wall to celebrate a young leader. Mike Eleven’s latest mural is springing up at Mason and Foster streets in Little India, Victoria’s first Indian Cultural Precinct. His subject is Greater Dandenong’s Australia Day Young Leader of the Year award winner Aishwarya Pokruluri. She was recognised for her volunteer work and giving Great Dandenong’s most vulnerable and marginalised young people a voice. Eleven said his mural included live portraits of Ms Pokruluri, representing the two worlds that young people from Indian cultural backgrounds often found themselves caught between.

Compiled by Dandenong & District Historical Society