By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Residents fighting to save a historic Keysborough church have put the question to council election candidates.
The 143-year-old Methodist Church at 176 Chapel Road is one of Keysborough’s few surviving 19th-century buildings.
It stands in disuse and disrepair, its Gothic façade visibly crumbling behind a cordoned fence. The building’s owner the Uniting Church is undecided on its fate.
Ten of 64 City of Greater Dandenong candidates responded to the ‘Save the Historic Keysborough Uniting Church Building Group’ survey.
The respondents were Hayat Rahimi (Cleeland Ward), Geraldine Gonsalvez (Dandenong), Sam Afra, Sheree Samy and Reinaldo Pincheira (Keysborough) and Ramy El-Sukkari, Rhonda Garad and Jeruisha Williams (Keysborough South), Alexander Forbes (Noble Park) and Brad Woodford (Noble Park North).
Ms Samy said community consultation should be held for ideas on not only preserving the building but converting it into a “viable usable space”.
“History cannot be rebuilt or remade, it has to be preserved.
“Australia in particular compared to other countries has not done much to preserve our indigenous culture and settlement history as has many other countries.”
Ms Gonsalvez said she’d fully support preservation, having fought battles to protect heritage buildings in the past.
“When I got elected (in 2000) I persevered to take up the fight to save the Dandenong Town Hall that was already earmarked for undesirable development purposes.
“Sadly in the last 20 years since I have been out of Council, we have recently lost many of the buildings I had fought to save.”
There was also effusive support from Mr Rahimi, Mr Afra, Mr El-Sukkari, Ms Garad and Mr Woodford.
Organiser Elizabeth Grasso said the church had visibly decayed during 2020 as residents lobbied the Uniting Church and Greater Dandenong Council for a solution.
Her group is backed by nearly 550 Facebook followers and an online petition of more than 840 signatures.
“The church is special to the community and we want to save it.
“We don’t care how it’s saved – as long as it’s saved.”
Although listed as significant in Greater Dandenong’s heritage study, the council says it is effectively powerless to compel the Uniting Church to preserve the building.
Heritage overlay protections were only triggered when development or demolition was proposed, Greater Dandenong city planning director Jody Bosman said earlier this year.
“Unfortunately (the council) can’t direct owners to protect structures from decay.”
In February, a Uniting Church spokesperson recently told Star Journal that the building was “unsafe” and “neither used or needed” by its congregation.
“(The) building itself has no formal heritage standing.
“In its current state it has been deemed unsafe and would require a significant amount of money spent on it to change that status.
“The local congregation and the Presbytery of Port Philip East continue to look at options for the future of the site.”
