By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
LITTLE India’s most enduring trader has called it quits, pronouncing the iconic Dandenong precinct “dead”.
Kathryne Turton-Lane is closing her 26-year-old Heidi Rose clothing store in the once vibrant Foster Street shopping strip, convinced there is “no future” for her or for other retailers.
The realisation dawned after two shattering recent events: a serious bout of pneumonia which landed her in hospital and the death of her mother, Anne.
“It’s just been such a battle. I had a break, a chance to rethink and decided I don’t need to do this anymore.”
She said change in central Dandenong has been “too dramatic” – sparked by the closure and reconfiguration of surrounding streets during Revitalising Central Dandenong streetworks several years ago.
“This is the last bastion of old Dandenong. It was a bustling street – we had a car park of 35 spaces full, the street full of people.
“People were coming from the railway station and coming into Dandenong to shop, not just to work.
“If you just want to see restaurants and cafes here and service providers on the side-streets, that’s what it will look like in the future. Little India will go.”
Nearby trader Baba Saheed, who has spent 13 years building Baba Home Entertainment, has just gone into rent arrears for the first time.
He said a clothes trader recently opened for business in the precinct had closed within a year.
He blames the streetworks and street parking being clogged by Dandenong railway station commuters.
“It has always been boomtime around here until they did the streetworks two years ago.
“I look out the window now and it’s just dead.
“There’s no future here, my friend. No one can fix it, they destroyed it.”
A Places Victoria spokeswoman said a “self-sufficient and prosperous” Little India was an “integral part” of the project.
She said Places Victoria and Greater Dandenong Council had extensively promoted Foster Street and Little India as a cultural hub.
Planned “higher-density development” would create opportunities for Little India to expand and for more amenities, such as restaurants and cafes, she said.
“The recently completed Halpin Way and Settlers Square provide new public amenities for pedestrians and are likely to result in increased foot traffic to the Little India precinct.”
