100 years ago
3 August 1923
Traders at Cranbourne
To the Editor
Sir – Can any sane person wonder at the deadness of Cranbourne? Fancy any town with an ounce of progress in it tolerating a weekly bleeding as this poor half-dead town suffers! To Cranbourne come each week a host of traders. They are of no value to the town, nor do they care an iota for its welfare. They take away among them some hundreds of the district’s ready cash, while the local shopkeepers have the doubtful honor of “strapping up” for the few things the” patriotic” locals forgot to get at the market. Can’t the Cranbourne public see that this market is a dead loss to the town, as they patronise these outsiders! Shouldn’t a man who lives in the town, take an interest in it? I certainly think it is time a Progress Association was formed in Cranbourne and one of the first duties of such an Association would be to move every nerve to have this “weekly cheap-jack market” abolished.
Yours, Cranbourne Townsman
50 years ago
21 August 1973
Mall plan ‘is no use’
Springvale’s City Engineer Mr Roy Boyd does not favour a pedestrian mall for the Noble Park shopping centre in Douglas Street. Construction of a mall would result in the loss of 84 car parking spaces. Noble Park could not afford to lose this number of car parking spaces. People would be forced to shop elsewhere. Mr Boyd said “creating a mall would of course eliminate traffic but it would be of no use if it also eliminated shoppers. I am doubtful that Douglas Street is the right spot for a pedestrian mall.”
20 years ago
25 August 2003
Memories flood in by Marg Stork
Romance, entertainment and culture, the Dandenong Town Hall has had it all. The romance came from those I spoke with who had attended the dances there over many decades, the entertainment from events such as bingo, and the culture from the fact that it has been home to the Greater Dandenong Festival of Music and Art for Youth for more than 50 years. From the stockmen’s ball to the home of the Red Cross mobile blood bank unit for many years, the hall has been at the centre of Dandenong life. If anyone has a long association with the hall it is Jim Reid, 81, of Ronald Street “Most of my vivid memories of the Dandenong Town Hall was when the Dandenong and District Cricket Association ran the popular Wednesday night dance in the town hall. I recall the ‘biggest Wednesday night dance ever -there were 1103 dancing and because of the crush, the committee decided to close the front doors. Then they realized it was not legal to close up for health reasons, and immediately opened up the front doors -where upon another 100 swept in.”
5 years ago
27 August 2018
Outcry over velodrome
The daughter of Noble Park sports legend Maurice Kiby has spoken out against draft plans to demolish a velodrome named in his honour. Gayle George told Star News the family was not consulted by Greater Dandenong Council, which had proposed to remove the Parkfield Reserve cycling track for a shared cycling path, soccer fields and cricket nets. Her larger-than-life father Mr Kirby ran a cycling shop in Noble Park, was a sports caller and set up the enormously popular Pedals Club for hundreds of children in the 1950’s.
Compiled by Dandenong & District Historical Society
