To mark Dandenong Star Journal’s 160 years of publication, PHILIP SALAMA-WEST is taking a then-and-now look at the people, places and events that have formed Dandenong’s modern history.
This week, the spotlight is on Dandenong Hub retail-office complex, which opened to great fanfare with TV stars, a dixieland jazz band and free drive-in cinema tickets in late 1974. It boasted a list of major retail and Federal department tenants. In recent times, it’s been touted as an anti-social trouble spot – but even within seven months of opening, the arcade was plagued with “louts causing havoc”.
An extract of the Tuesday June 17, 1975 front-page article in The Journal appears below.
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DEATH FEAR AT NEW CENTRE!
Young louts are causing havoc at Dandenong Hub, the city’s latest retail complex.
In two incidents, people narrowly escaped death through the louts’ activities.
Complaints have been made to shop proprietors in the building and to the managing agents, Gordon Norris Real Estate.
A spokesman for Gordon Norris said: “We are so perturbed about the incidents, we have circularised all schools in the Dandenong area asking principals to appeal to students to refrain from such activities.”
In one incident, a long, thick iron bar was thrown from the top floor of the car park on the roof of the building.
The bar plummeted into the PMG yard next door, narrowly missing to PMG employees.
Had the bar struck either or both, they would have been seriously injured and possibly killed. In another incident, louts got into a locked car and released the handbrake.
They pushed the vehicle to the top of a ramp and let it go.
They watched the car roll forward and gather speed as it went down the incline.
The car smashed into a door of an SEC sub-station after bouncing twice off a brick wall and was badly damaged.
Luckily no one was hurt.
The management of the centre is understood to be considering employing a permanent car park attendant.
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Violence and antisocial activity have unfortunately continued to be associated with the Dandenong Hub in the years since it opened with much fanfare in November 1974.
The $7 million project by Hanover Holdings Ltd opened with the sound of a dixieland jazz band and TV stars Sue Donovan, Philip Brady and Jimmy Hannan entertained and signed autographs for a large crowd of shoppers.
Public Works Minister Robert Dunstan unveiled a commemorative plaque, and 10,000 free tickets to Village drive-in theatres were given away in the opening week.
At the outset, the arcade’s two retail floors attracted major tenants Walsh’s Pty Ltd, Brash’s, Yamaha Music Centre and A E Moore and Sons.
“The complex has a variety of stores and offers shopping in a quiet atmosphere, air-conditioned comfort throughout and is decorated in subdued colors.
“Escalators and lifts connect all levels.”
The Dandenong Hub’s entire four-storey office tower was initially let to the Federal Government for the Taxation Department and the Health Commission.
Though plans to redevelop and revitalise the Arcade have been proposed across the years, with one notable attempt being launched in 2008, the aging structure is largely unchanged in appearance from the 1970s and 80s.
Violence, theft and antisocial behavior have continued to be common problems around the two-storey shopping complex.
One store owner stated recently “There’s a break-in once every two weeks now, you go upstairs, something’s always getting broken in. It hasn’t been this bad ever.”
Vendors have called for management to implement more substantial security measures.
Currently, a single security guard patrols the premises from 2-6pm, with another guard on duty after midnight.
Likewise, The Hub has continually seen break-ins by Dandenong’s homeless population seeking shelter at night.
Vincent Golf, a real estate agent at First National Hall and partners said: “The homeless people like to be in dark places where there’s no other people around and that’s the Hub at the moment – it’s dark.
“If there’s more activity in the Hub during the day it’s less likely the homeless people will be there.”
Hopes for the rejuvenation of The Hub continue, however, with plans for the construction of a special needs educational facility on the second floor being recently announced.
The facility would occupy a shop adjacent to the second floor food court, which would house culinary facilities to train people with autism and other special needs.
