Last Chance to Save Our Chalet!
The Chalet is an iconic building in central Park Orchards, it is highly valued by our community. PORA has a vision to see the Chalet brought back to life, potentially as a Community Hub and the new home of the Park Orchards Community House & Learning Centre, which has outgrown its current location across the road.
The POCH&LC is the most utilised centre in Manningham. For around 20 years, the Centre Managers, Committees of Management and the community have been unsuccessfully lobbying Manningham Council for more space and a building upgrade. As a community of ratepayers, we need Council to hear our voice and use our rates to buy and refurbish the Chalet as a valuable community asset. If the Chalet goes to a developer, Park Orchards will get absolutely nothing! It’s time for YOU to join our collective voice and demonstrate to Manningham Council what a tremendous benefit this proposal would have for the wider community.
THE NEED
POCH&LC (‘POCH’) punches well above its weight compared to other Community Houses in Manningham. Offering a high-performance rating, it has outgrown the current location. It is now forced to offer services over five locations, limiting what it can offer and creating serious administration issues and cleaning demands.
POCH’s existing old weather board building is structurally compromised, sagging on one side and needs to be replaced. Council recognises the inadequacy and challenges of the current location, yet has allocated NO SPECIFIC FUNDS for the upgrade in the 2024/25 Manningham Budget.
Parking availability is limited and chaotic with the school, kindergarten, child-care centre tennis club and basketball stadium all competing for available spaces. Further, disabled access is poor, with only one disabled parking spot on sloping ground, not fit for purpose.
Rebuilding the POCH on the existing site would cause major disruption to the provision of services and extended relocation to a site in Ringwood for at least 18 months to 2 years.
THE COUNCIL
The rate paying community of Park Orchards vision of preserving the Chalet and developing it for the community’s future use is receiving no proactive support from Manningham Council. In July 2024, it engaged a specialist consultant to review Warrandyte’s Community Infrastructure plan, adding the POCH at the eleventh hour. PORA attended? were invited to an early September meeting and informed that submissions would close on Mon 16 SEPT. Two weeks is an unacceptable and inadequate frame to enable REAL CONSULTATION with Park Orchards community groups and the wider community.
THE PROPOSAL
PORA believe four site options were being considered by Council for the POCH: an existing site rebuild, existing site plus the property next door, (which just sold), a separate building at Domeney Reserve or the Chalet being renovated. With significant heritage value as a military base in WW2, the Chalet deserves to be repurposed for its 100th anniversary in 2028. PORA believes that the Chalet is the only option. It ticks all of the boxes for the needs of the POCH&LC and the community!
BENEFITS OF OPTIONS FOR POCH & LC
| Location | Chalet | Domeney | Existing Site | Existing/adjacent | |
| Parking | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | |
| Public transport | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~impossible~~ | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~ Obvious ~~ | |
| Disability access | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | |
| POCH&LC Disruption | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | |
| Building difficulty | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | ~~impossible~~ | impossible~~ | |
| Child Care | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | |
| Loss of park land | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | ||||
| Heritage Legacy | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | |
| Art Gallery | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | |
| Co-work, study space | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | |
| Maternal Welfare & Youth Outreach | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | |
| Sundry Rooms | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | |
| Community shed | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | |
| Community support | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | |
| Site availability | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~~ feasible ~~~ | |
| Garden retreat & Community Garden | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~ Obvious ~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | ~~~ Difficult ~~~ | |
| Cost | ~$6-8M | ~$5-6M | ~$5-6M | ~$6-8M | |
| Land vale – $/m2 | $390/m2 | ||||
| Community Asset value | $6-7M Owned by us! | Owned by the State | Owned by the State | Owned by the State | |
| Pragmatic and obvious | Pragmatic and obvious | ||||
| Not easy but feasible | Not easy but feasible | ||||
| Difficult but not impossible | Difficult but not impossible | ||||
| Virtually impossible | Virtually impossible | ||||
Make your voice heard! Please email all of the following ASAP:
Manningham Council CEO, Andrew Day: Andrew.Day@manningham.vic.gov.au
Yarra Ward Councillor and Mayor, Carli Lange: mayor@manningham.vic.gov.au
Park Orchards Ratepayers Association (PORA): admin@pora.org.au
What are our rates being spent on in Park Orchards?