By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS and CATHERINE WATSON
A grassroots councillor has made a name for going beyond the call of duty.
Roz Blades, a three-time mayor of Springvale and Greater Dandenong, has served as a councillor for 23 years. Outside of her civic duties, she has also helped launch and lead a long list of community groups in Noble Park and Springvale.
She’s a member of Springvale Community Aid and Advice Bureau, Springvale and District Historical Society, Noble Park Community Action Forum, Springvale Benevolent Society and the Interfaith Network of City of Greater Dandenong.
There’s a long list of former involvements, including helping to set up South Eastern Region Polio Support Group.
Today, she has been announced as a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia for her “significant service” to local government and Greater Dandenong.
Cr Blades, a former community nurse, was “astonished” by the honour that she says “is not about me”.
“I have been fortunate to be elected by this marvellous community. I want to do it to make life better for people.”
Since migrating as a 20-year-old with husband Terry from England on the ’10 pound Pom’ immigration program, she’s been determined to “give back because Australia has given our family so much”.
She helped out at her sons’ kindergartens and schools, and pitched into a safety house program, organising from home as she looked after the kids. She joined other volunteers in building an adventure playground at Burden Park, helping to raise thousands of dollars.
“Whenever I drive past [the playground] and see families there, I get a kick out of that.”
As she says, nothing happens without hard work. Since she was first elected at City of Springvale Council in 1987, she has kicked goals of introducing free parking for gold-card veterans in Greater Dandenong, advocating for better public transport and fewer level crossings and for better community facilities such as the recently-awarded Noble Park Aquatic Centre and Noble Park Civic Space.
“I’m in the council to get stuff done,” she said.
Graham, tireless volunteer
IT’S not for nothing that Graham Don has been feted with the title ‘The King of SLAC Castle’.
For the past 39 years, he has been at the helm of Springvale Learning and Activities Centre — a hub for students, card players and basketballers.
His voluntary work keeps him occupied in his backyard office — its walls plastered with certificates of recognition — for eight hours a day, seven days a week.
The community service has earned him an eagerly-awaited Medal of the Order of Australia. “It’s a relief actually,” he said. “I was hopeful I’d get recognised last year. When it came I was so happy.”
Mr Don reckons that without the work, he’d be dead. He started helping at SLAC — the former Springvale Community Centre — as a parent at the community youth club in 1976. He hasn’t left since, plying countless hours as an executive member and maintenance man.
A former naval cadet, he served in the communications unit on the fateful HMAS Melbourne — though thankfully ending his service before the aircraft carrier’s fatal collision with HMAS Voyager in 1964.
He volunteers as welfare and pensions officer for the Naval Association of Australia, having also served on the association’s executive.
As the slogan plastered on his car states: ‘Once Navy, Always Navy.’
A proud principal
THERE’S a pupil who sticks in Kevin Mackay’s mind, one of many.
This was a rough, tough kid when Dandenong North was a rough, tough place. He threw his weight around, disrupted the class and made life hard for the teacher. Dandenong North Primary School school had a reputation for handling difficult kids but nothing worked with this boy.
In the end, Mr Mackay said to him: “You can’t go back into that class until you promise me you’re going to behave.”
“Up yours,” the kid said, or words to that effect. So they put a desk in the corridor. You could do that with naughty kids in those days. After 80 days, he was still sitting there. The teachers thought he was going to sit there forever. Then one day he came to Mr Mackay and said, “I’m ready to work”. And he did.
Years later, he rocked up to the school. Mr Mackay was still principal but the kid was now a man. He was working as a brickie and he had muscles everywhere. He rushed up and hugged Mr Mackay. Then he told him a story.
He was in Brighton one day when a semi-trailer clipped the corner and hit a woman beside him and severed her leg. He had cradled the dying woman until the ambulance came. “I did it because I remembered what you did for me,” he said. “I thought here’s something I can do to pay it back.”
Today, Mr Mackay receives a Medal of the Order of Australia for services to education, in particular his 27 years as principal at Dandenong North.
For all the honours he’s received, it is hearing stories like this that makes him proudest. He had already been at 13 schools, including the Langi Kal Kal Youth Training Education Centre, when he arrived at Dandenong North in 1984. Back then the school had such a bad reputation that there were only 380 pupils.
“It was a pretty wild place. There were machete fights in the street, occasional assaults on teachers and we’d spend every Monday cleaning up after the vandals.”
These days there are about 600 pupils and the school’s results are so outstanding that it has been the subject of several studies and multiple ministerial visits.
Eighty-one per cent of the pupils come from non-Anglo backgrounds and 42 per cent of families are in the bottom quarter of educational advantage, but it outperforms most schools in more affluent areas. “The teaching is fantastic because the children are so well behaved. You’ve got to have that in place before you get to the teaching.”
The transformation was a gradual one — “the first step was to get the kids under control”.
He introduced a behavioural management program, based on rewarding good behaviour rather than punishing bad behaviour. Pupils are awarded badges, raffle tickets and house points for good behaviour.
Mr Mackay says a very experienced staff is the other factor. “I’m not the only one who’s stayed here for a long time — we have a very stable staff and they are very experienced at teaching children whose first language is not English.”
Last week one of the younger pupils wrote him a letter headed “Why Mr Mackay is a good principal”. It ends: “because he’s a nice-hearted man”.
He says the little girl who wrote it gave him a watch. “I know the family doesn’t have much money. I’ll wear that watch every day!”
Looking at his long CV, I suggest the R-word must be on the horizon. He laughs. “Why would I retire? Here I am surrounded by these beautiful children. I’m enjoying every minute of it.”
