who are we?

Brief history
In the late 1990's the Victorian Education Department announced its intention to close the Oakleigh South Seconary College and relocate Oakleigh South Primary school from Beryl Ave to the Farm Rd site. Land outside the standard requirements of the primary school was to be sold either to the local council or to private developer for residential development.

Shortly after a group of concerned local residents, members of the Oakleigh South Primary school community and members of local sporting clubs started up a campaign to retain the land as public parkland.

As the anniversary of Federation was imminent, the group initially focused on having the land retained as public parkland to be named “Federation Park”.

Federation celebrations came and went and still we are battling to save this open space for our current and future community.

The Bracks government recently released its Melbourne 2030 policy that points to the need to “Improve the quality and distribution of local open space and ensure long-term protection of public open space”.

In response we have launched the “Save Our Space Campaign” . We want the Labor government to make their rhetoric a reality. We want them to establish a public park on the surplus school land, rather than selling it off for housing development.

A more detailed timeline of the key events of our 4 year campaign is available in the CAMPAIGN section.

The Federation Park committee
Many people have worked to support our cause and a varying core group of people have put in much time and effort to sustain our campaign over a 4 year period.

Current committee members:

Dot Jenkin
local resident of 46 years
involved from the start

Ron Millett
local resident
involved from the start

Gail Plozza
local resident
member of Oakleigh South Primary school council
has children at the school
involved for over 2 years

Neil Macintosh
local resident
has children at Oakleigh South Primary
concerned ratepayer and citizen

John Crane
local resident
involved with a range of local sporting groups
has a child at Oakleigh South Primary

Jack Davis
president of the Monash Ratepayers Association
local resident
ex local councillor for Warrigal Ward
involved from the start

Leoni Jenkin
was a local resident for 25 years
frequent visitor to the area
uses the area for walking and playing with kids

Peter Malone
frequent visitor to the area
believes publicly owned open spaces should remain in public hands