Noble Park RSL is offering its foyer as a safe waiting place for commuters concerned about safety at the railway station. From left: RSL president Gordon Murray, staff members Beverley Palmer, Melanie Anthony and Bianca Scott, and manager Mark Wilkinson. Picture: Luke Plummer.
By Shaun Inguanzo
NOBLE Park Diggers are offering the town’s RSL club as a safe haven for commuters facing anxious night-time waits at the nearby train station in a bid to reduce violent crime which they believe is affecting the town’s reputation.
The move follows the latest in a series of violent incidents to plague Noble Park Train Station, in which 19-year-old Sudanese refugee Liep Gony was bashed and left for dead in Mons Parade on Wednesday night 26 September.
Mr Gony died in hospital from severe head trauma, and on Monday police from the Victorian Homicide Squad and Greater Dandenong Crime Investigation Unit investigating the crime said they had charged two Noble Park men with murder.
Noble Park RSL president Gordon Murray told Star that Noble Park RSL would promote itself as a safe haven from anti-social behaviour occurring at the station nearly every weekend.
Mr Murray said people feeling threatened or unsafe could wait in the RSL’s foyer and help themselves to a cup of coffee and access a pay phone.
A security guard would also keep a watchful eye on the RSL club to ensure undesirables did not follow train travellers inside, he said.
“The RSL is right near the station and anyone at night who has got worries about staying at the station or waiting for lift, or wanting to use a phone even, we have a nice little foyer they can sit down and wait in anytime,” he said.
“You don’t have to be a member of the RSL.”
Mr Murray said the RSL was a cornerstone of community support and would go to any lengths to ensure Noble Park residents were kept safe.
“As well as looking after the veterans, we are looking after the community,” Mr Murray said.
He said he had been a Noble Park resident for more than 50 years and that the criminal element had begun to “get under his skin”.
In what was among first signs of escalating violence, Star reported in October last year local cab drivers’ concerns over violent behaviour affecting their duties.
Noble Park cabbie Metin Akkusoglu was beaten when he tried to intervene in a robbery at the train station while waiting to collect passengers.
He vowed to never wait at Noble Park again.
Fellow taxi driver Andrew Hall at the time suggested security staff should man Noble Park Train Station to ensure taxi drivers’ safety.
Springvale North Ward councillor Alan Gordon this week said he always collected his son from Noble Park station to avoid him becoming a victim.
Cr Gordon said last week’s fatality reinforced calls for Noble Park to become a premium manned station, and for the town to have its own police station.
