Suggestions for Improving Parkdale and Mordialloc

Shops in Como Parade West, Parkdale, 1987. Courtesy Leader Collection.

A thirteen year old Parkdale girl, Maureen Hayden, wrote to the Mordialloc News in 1945 describing the matters that needed improvement in the City of Mordialloc. Her views were published in the paper on 1 February of that year. Maureen is still a resident of Parkdale.

The Mordialloc Creek is about the most important thing to improve. The banks are ready to cave in on the next stormy or windy day. Also the boats which are harboured in the creek should be taken out. That is those that which are half submerged. There is one near the high school covered with barnacles. This is the sort of thing that causes the unpleasant odours along the banks of the creek. I think the broken down jetties could also be righted quite easily.

Mordialloc Creek Pollution, 1972. Courtesy Leader Collection.

The lane at the back of the shops on the station side is very dirty. I think that it could and should be kept much cleaner. I think, also, that more attention could be paid to the side streets running off Beach Road and into the Main Street, Mordialloc. These streets badly need renewing.

More baby health centres are needed for the oncoming flow of children. These health centres are needed throughout the municipality, also more playgrounds for the school children. Instead of playing on the streets and annoying not only the ordinary people, but the shop owner, a playground would keep the children off the streets and out of mischief.

A good idea would be to get sewerage throughout the municipality. This would lessen the number of complaints about dirty lanes and streets.

The dredging of the creek would make it healthier and cleaner. When doing this, the levee banks could be built up to avoid further accidents on the water weakened soil.

Dredging the Mordialloc Creek, 1973. Courtesy Leader Collection.

More shelters and dressing rooms could be built along the beach for the vast number of summer visitors, who chose Mordialloc as their holiday resort.

The trenches in the grounds of the Mordialloc State School should be filled in so as to allow the children more playing capacity. It would be much safer, too, because careless and thoughtless children are liable to fall down the trench and be seriously hurt.

An effort should be made by the Mordialloc station staff to stop children from playing in and writing on the newly painted wall of the waiting room. Also the bouncing of balls on the platform which may bring disaster, as they worry the men working on the lines to retrieve their balls for them.

Last, but not least, is the dire necessity for a Community Hospital. As there is plenty of land in or between Mordialloc and Parkdale, if the proposed hospital materialises, to maintain the upkeep a good suggestion would be to deduct a shilling in the pound of each wage earner in the municipality.

Mordialloc Cheltenham Community Hospital. Courtesy Leader Collection.