100 years ago
27 November 1924
Observations
Hundreds of Dandenong residents crowded round a free open-air exhibition of juggling, balancing etc. in Lonsdale-Street Dandenong for a night or two last week. The show was decidedly clever but not very elevating or instructive. The A.N.A competitions were on in the Town Hall at the same time, and all the best amateur talent of this and several other districts was taking part. There were numerous competitors, and these in turn have numerous relatives and friends, and excellent programs were organised for each night. Yet the attendance at the Town Hall could be counted in dozens, although the competitions were for the encouragement of young and promising performers, and also a fine advertisement for the town and district. No comment is needed, except to suggest that Dandenong residents prefer “Cheap Jack” entertainments to those of a more instructive and useful nature.
50 years ago
26 November 1974
PICKET LINE PROTEST ON PARKING
Dandenong housewives plan to picket the Myer Dandenong carpark. Protests are mounting over the company’s policy of charging 20 cents to park in the four-storey parking garage. Housewives say other retailers and supermarkets provide free on-site parking in many cases for an unlimited period. Picketing of the carpark was instigated by Mrs Barbara Stanczewski, her relatives and friends. She said “I feel busy young Dandenong mothers and working wives are entitled to at least park at Myer Dandenong for up to two hours for free.” Myer Dandenong manager Mr Manzie said that Myer thought the charge of 20 cents was “quite reasonable and that even at 20 cents for two hours the carpark was maintained at a loss.”
20 years ago
22 November 2004
SUPER JUNCTION
A conceptual image of Dandenong’s key interchange with the Frankston-Mitcham Freeway shows a triple-deck super junction that is set to be the country’s largest. The new freeway will pass through at ground level with Princes Highway elevated above it and Heatherton Road will pass over that on a third road deck, The interchange will improve vehicle flow as it will eliminate the need for intersection traffic lights. Greater Dandenong CEO Carl Wulff was impressed with the design concept “It will be the biggest interchange facility in the country to rival anything in Los Angeles,” he said. Although motorists will have to pay to use the tollway, the council’s community support group manager, Ross Hepburn, is adamant they will get a much better piece of infrastructure than something funded by the State Treasury.
5 years ago
25 November 2019
IBAC HEARING
Developer’s ‘puppets’
A property developer allegedly paid cash to Casey councillors and treated them as his “puppets” as part of a campaign to rezone Cranbourne West land, an anti-corruption hearing has heard. It was alleged that the developer, John Woodman, paid $80,000 in cash deposits to Cr Sam Aziz and $17,500 to Cr Geoff Ablett in the lead-up to Amendment C219 deliberations in 2014. Mr Woodman and his associates had been lobbying councillors to rezone the land from industrial to residential – a move that would create a windfall profit of tens of millions of dollars. The IBAC investigation will focus on corruption involving Casey councillors and property developers, particularly three planning issues. They are the Amendment C219 rezoning of land in Cranbourne West, the H3 intersection in Hall Road, Cranbourne West, and the Pavilion Estate.
Compiled by Dandenong & District Historical Society
