Memories Flower

By Nicole Williams
THE rose smells sweet but for many the memories are sweeter.
More than 150 people gather on Sunday 1 April at the former site of the Enterprise Migrant Hostel to celebrate the launch of The Enterprise Rose, developed by Treloar Roses and named to honour of the history of the hostel.
The Enterprise Migrant Hostel housed more than 30,000 refugees and migrants between 1970 and 1992.
The rose also recognises the contribution refugees and migrants have made to the community and the stunning rose garden which welcomed new arrivals to the hostel in the 1970s.
Project convenor Merle Mitchell said it was a fantastic day where many people reunited after many years apart.
“The mayor of the city (Youhorn Chea) met up with his first English teacher and a group of Timorese people who arrived in the mid-‘70s met with a group of Chilean people who arrived at the same time,” Ms Mitchell said.
“It was a reunion of all sorts of people.”
Ms Mitchell said it was part of an ongoing project with started with an exhibition at the Melbourne Immigration Museum in 2010 and has culminated with the rose and the installation of a rose garden at Lexington Gardens Retirement Village, the former site of the hostel.
“The rose is just beautiful,” she said.
Simon Crean, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for the Arts and Jose Alvarez, Victorian State Director of the Department Immigration and Citizenship planted the first rose bush.