By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Negotiations to save one of Keysborough’s oldest standing buildings have taken a promising turn, Greater Dandenong councillors say.
Residents and councillors have lobbied to save the markedly-deteriorating 144-year-old Keysborough Methodist Church at 176 Chapel Road.
In the meantime, Greater Dandenong Council and the church’s owner the Uniting Church have been in months of talks about a possible handover for a ‘peppercorn fee’.
Land at the rear of the church may be set aside for “quality” large-lot housing.
Similarly, the council secured the historic Masonic lodge in Mason Street, Dandenong for $1. The Greater Dandenong Gallery of Art is soon to open on the renovated site.
Gaye Guest, who is part of the community campaign, was hopeful of a similar transformation at the Keysborough church.
“The church isn’t getting any younger. It needs a bit of TLC.”
Community members were seeking to form a corporation, with the dream of running a museum, art gallery, community garden and cafe in the church, Ms Guest said.
She said convents in Abbotsford and Daylesford had been brilliantly transformed into idyllic arts precincts.
Meanwhile, an online petition to save the church has attracted close to 1500 signatures.
Keysborough South Ward councillor Rhonda Garad said there was “growing interest” in saving the chapel.
“Almost all of Keysborough South is brand new which makes saving the precious remnants of history so much more important.
“The Chapel would make a wonderful community meeting place. It would be wonderful to retain this.
“Our discussions with the Uniting Church continue, and we are hopeful of a positive outcome.”
Dandenong Ward councillor Jim Memeti said the community wants to save one of Greater Dandenong’s oldest surviving buildings.
“If the council is going to get involved to preserve it, it needs to have possession. It needs to own the building (for a peppercorn fee).”
The Gothic-style building with coloured stained-glass windows, historic honour boards and shingle roof is a rare remnant of the area’s 19th-century history.
It is encroached by a towering housing estate to the south and a proposed sub-division to the north.
Talks are said to have been further spurred by a recent State Government law to protect historic properties from unlawful demolition and neglect.
The laws would allow the Government to step in when a historic building is unlawfully demolished or – perhaps crucially in the Keysborough church case – allowed to fall into disrepair.
Owners charged with unlawful demolition could be banned from developing the site for up to 10 years.
