By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
HIDDEN away in Shawlands Caravan Park are some of Dandenong’s most needy residents.
Set back from South Gippsland Highway, the low-profile site was apparently once one of the most beautiful caravan parks around, says manager Elizabeth Miller.
After years of neglect, the park was taken over by Ms Miller when it was a ramshackle village shrouded in rampant vegetation. It was a place “where caravans come to die”, she said.
“Drug addict” tenants had been running the show and it was out of control.
But the no-nonsense manager pulled the wasted egos into line. To its still motley band of 200 tenants, this is home and Ms Miller is like their mother.
The needs are alarming. People with children rock up with not so much as a saucepan or sheets. She’s helped clean up hoarders’ vans, and counts six tenants who died last year.
Then there are the success stories. A tenant, once an “angry young man”, is now the most loyal of servants, who’ will do any odd-job Ms Miller asks of him. Another gets free board for filling the park’s potholes.
A park playground that had been closed because of “syringes in the swings” was replaced by Dandenong Christian Reformed Church.
Ms Miller bats for unfashionable causes, such as a resident who was needing Ms Miller to hold and administer her medication — until taken away by Department of Human Services because she couldn’t look after herself.
“She was a lovely girl and I miss her. Sometimes you feel like crying,” Ms Miller said.
She also arked up for a tenant, evicted from a house, who couldn’t afford to get their things out of storage. “They even took her personal photo albums — what use is that to them?”
Trish Keilty, of food charity Avocare, said Ms Miller was looking after “the invisible people”.
“People know about refugees. These are our own home-grown people — people don’t see them.”
Monica Austrums, a member of Dandenong Christian Reformed Church, is in awe of Ms Miller. “She’s extremely selfless. She doesn’t stand for nonsense because she can’t afford to, but she looks out for them. She keeps them on the straight-and-narrow.”
It’s sobering to think there’s 20 on the waiting list for these most humble of homes. “We’d turn away 50 a week who you just can’t house,” Ms Miller said.
“Most rentals in Dandenong start at $300 a week — how can someone on Newstart afford that, plus a bond?”
Ms Miller is in and out of hospital with chronic lung disease, but still she had the strength several years ago to fight Greater Dandenong Council, which wanted to shut the park down.
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