Doveton’s spectacular new community hub opened to fanfare and sunshine at a celebration on Saturday 25 May.
The $5.27 million Autumn Place Community Hub includes a redeveloped four-year-olds kindergarten with outdoor play spaces, two maternal and child health consulting rooms and a multi-purpose room, kitchen and courtyard.
It also includes an improved outdoors park, playground and barbecue area.
The celebrations on 25 May included free family activities, a sausage sizzle, face painting and a mobile animal farm.
Dandenong MP Gabrielle Williams, who opened the hub, said it would help local families “meaningfully connect”.
It was critical for the development of young children, she said.
“It will be an important hub for inclusion and community engagement as well as the sharing of knowledge and ideas, fostering new connections.”
Local Government Minister Adem Somyurek, whose government had contributed $3.6 million, said “we’re getting on with delivering the facilities our growing communities need”.
Casey Council funded the remaining $1.67 million for the project.
Casey mayor Amanda Stapledon said the integrated community hub in the “heart of Doveton” was a place for residents to “meet, learn, play, socialise and connect”.
Councillors Wayne Smith and Damien Rosario encouraged the local community to join the celebrations.
“We’re proud of the revitalisation that has occurred in Doveton’s town centre and look forward to celebrating these recent upgrades, which make it a more inviting and well-utilised space,” Cr Rosario said.
The Government has provided more than $25 million to the hub and 15 other projects in City of Casey through its Growing Suburbs Fund.
The projects include Chalcot Lodge Childrens Centre and the Casey cycling precinct.
