by Cam Lucadou-Wells
In a shock development, Keysborough’s historic church is set to go on the “open market” after Greater Dandenong Council pulled out of a potential purchase.
In a closed council meeting on 27 May, councillors voted against buying the 147-year-old building and a younger wooden church building at 176 Chapel Road.
The church – formerly known as Keysborough Methodist Church – was built by the community in 1877. It’s one of the few surviving historic buildings in the suburb.
“Council has carefully considered the benefits and challenges of purchasing this land, and on balance has determined not to pursue the purchase,” a council spokesperson said.
It ends more than two years of fruitless negotiations between the council and owner Uniting Church in Australia to preserve the decayed and vandalized building.
An Uniting Church in Australia spokesperson stated that it intended to “sell on the open market” and “will commence this process shortly”.
“This is disappointing as such a long time was spent on these negotiations.
“If the council had purchased the property, a public open space would have been made available to the community and a community group would have taken ownership of the two churches on the site.”
The church has continued to be broken into by vandals despite fences being installed around the property. Several stained-glass windows have been broken, and the interior tagged with graffiti.
“We have taken reasonable steps to secure the site and will continue to do so while it remains in our ownership,” the church spokesperson said.
The move has dashed hopes of a community group who wished to renovate and use the site as a public facility and open space.
Rhonda Garad, one of the group’s directors and a Greater Dandenong councillor, did not vote on the issue on 27 May due to a conflict of interest.
She was disappointed in the “short-sighted” decision by her councillor colleagues.
“This historic church has really strong significance to the local community. The Keysborough South and broader community will be disappointed.”
Cr Garad said it was a “sad, missed opportunity” to snap up a “very reasonable” and below market-value offer from the Uniting Church.
“Keysborough South is a completely brand-new suburb. It has almost no understanding of its history.
“The purchase would have guaranteed the preservation of the church building and Sunday School building next to it.
“Generations have moved through the church with births, weddings and Sunday school. It holds community memories and knowledge – we won’t get that back.”
Cr Garad said the community group’s aim was to absorb all of the financial risk and outlays in renovating and running the proposed facility.
The possibilities for the site included as a gathering place, arts space, farmer’s market, café and community garden.
“The area is so densely populated.
“There’s no other green space at that top end of Chapel Road – it’s our last bite of the cherry.
“They’ve lost the opportunity to convert a much loved and appreciated historical building into a community asset.”
Cr Garad said she wasn’t sure who would now buy the church, which is under a local heritage protection overlay.
“It will cost a lot of money to bring the church back to even a state of structural stability.”
Another of the group’s directors is historian Christine Keys – whose family were instrumental in the building of the church in the 19th century.
She said the council’s decision was “frustrating” and “annoying” after “nearly three years of going backwards and forwards”.
“What it means is that the council is not interested in heritage. To just let an 1877 church go – it’s an attack on heritage.”
The structure is the “only link” to the district’s early pastoral history, she says.
“The Methodist Church has been in Keysborough South through the Keys family who originally invited a Methodist minister from Brighton here.
“Until the church was built they held (church) in the Keys’s home. They were instrumental in getting the church built.”
Ms Keys hoped there may be a chance of negotiating directly for a handover from Uniting Church.
The Uniting Church-affiliated charity Mission Liaison Group, which stores shipping containers of overseas aid onsite, also faces an uncertain future.
MLG convener John Connan said he’d be “devastated” if the church was demolished.
“It’s one of the three remaining historic buildings in Keysborough including the former primary school and the Keys family home.
“It seems that heritage is something we can forget about in Australia.”
No alternative location for the MLG has been identified.
