Greater Dandenong Council has issued an apology to Dandenong and District Historical Society, which was locked out of their annual general meeting venue that was booked by the society well in advance.
About 20 members of the historical group including a guest speaker were left stranded from its annual meeting point at Dandenong’s Heritage Hill on Sunday 19 October.
Thanks to its president Christine Keys’s quick thinking, the group were able to hold their meeting at the nearby St James Anglican Church.
“I thought I better do some thinking. Fortunately I have an association with St James Anglican Church, I am on their parish council, and as a consequence I was able to get into that building and have the meeting there.
“We had a speaker, an author of a book who was going to speak on his book.
“It would’ve been pretty embarrassing if I didn’t find an alternative option.
“I didn’t think we would have to remind them, I thought they had a booking system.”
She says usually a council staffer would always be there before their meeting time at 1pm and to open the facility for them.
This time, no one was there despite their booking confirmation well in advance.
She jokes if it wasn’t for her quick thinking, she would have had to take the author out for a dinner instead.
With a few delays, they were able to set up the technology in the meeting room of the church for the author, Ross Dawson to showcase his presentation to the group.
Despite her phone calls and email to the council, Ms Keys didn’t receive any response nor any explanation as to what and why this occurred.
She later received apologies from councillor Lana Formoso. The council’s community strengthening executive director Peta Gillies also apologised after it was flagged by Cr Formoso at the council meeting on Monday 27 October.
Ms Gillies told the meeting that this was the first time she heard about the matter, and that she will look into the matter. She was quick to apologies to Ms Keys, but an explanation is still due.
The Historical Society and Ms Keys’ work are highly regarded, playing a crucial role within the community to ensure Greater Dandenong’s rich stories are preserved and told.
She was named Greater Dandenong’s 2020 citizen of the year, is on Greater Dandenong’s heritage advisory committee and continues to contribute to Star Journal’s weekly Looking Back column.
