NOVEMBER 30, 2016 \ STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
NEWS + SPORT + THE WEST’S BEST PROPERTY GUIDE
RSL club loses fight EXCLUSIVE By Goya Dmytryshchak Williamstown RSL Club will close as early as January, according to a well-placed source. In July, Star Weekly reported that Grocon had lodged an application with Hobsons Bay council for a five-storey, 69-dwelling development with a smaller RSL club and retail on the ground floor. The development comes with the club struggling to repay a $2.8 million debt. However, Star Weekly has been told that there are now plans to close the club altogether. Major General David McLachlan, the RSL state president, confirmed that RSL Victoria had been speaking to other parties about potential non-residential uses for the site.
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To me, this whole thing is just heart-wrenching
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- Bruce O’Brien
Dignity is in the bag
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A Williamstown man has collected more than 120 bags filled with essentials for women experiencing homelessness and family violence. Tim Reynolds said his business was a collection point for Share the Dignity’s ‘It’s in the bag’ Christmas campaign. Share the Dignity is a campaign that started last year after a call went out for sanitary items and other essentials. Mr Reynolds said he was amazed by the community’s support. “The whole campaign, which runs from November 19 until December 3, was to have people in the community donate bags, and inside the bag there are things that are essentials that women need,” he said. “I’m the local pick-up point for Williamstown, and I’ve been absolutely blown away by the community’s response. “I’m sitting on about 120 bags easily.” The bags will be distributed to women’s refuges and drop-in centres for homeless women in time for Christmas.
(Damjan Janevski)
Mr McLachlan confirmed there may have been an offer from a football club to purchase the property. “There are a couple involved and that’s commercial-in-confidence at this point in time,” he said. “There is concern about the future of the sub-branch as an entity and we’re working through all the options. There are no final decisions made in regard to what will happen there.” He said head office was handling the club’s debt. “The club continues to be underwritten by the state branch at the moment.” Asked what would happen if Williamstown RSL closed, Mr McLachlan said those matters were confidential. “It may just close and we take the role of the sub-branch into another sub-branch, but they’re matters which are still being negotiated and they’re in-camera at the moment,” he said. Williamstown RSL president Bruce O’Brien said the club premises on the corner of Ferguson Street and Melbourne Road had been gifted to WWI servicemen in 1919 by the then local Red Cross Society. “It was formed for welfare and to keep the memory going,” he said. “If it’s gone it’s bloody gone. It’s sad. It would break my heart. “I had a dad and two uncles who went away; one uncle didn’t come back. “To me, this whole thing is just heartwrenching. That land was gifted to the returned soldiers. How can some other bastard just sell it from under us.”