News / Council
Residents closer to getting access to basketball court
Appeals court throws out appliction by Montfort Park owners
Mark Phillips
A YEARS-LONG dispute over public access to a fenced off basketball court in Brunswick is one step closer to resolution after Victoria’s highest court slammed the door shut on any further legal action by the property’s current owners preventing local residents from using it.
The Victorian Court of Appeal has dismissed an application for leave to appeal by the Dar-Alawda (Wendel Street) Community Centre against an order last year to transfer ownership of Montfort Park back to Merri-bek Council.
The decision, published this month in a 27-page judgement following a hearing in June, is a blow to Dar-Alawda, which has owned the land and an adjacent hall since 2004.
Merri-bek, then known as the City of Moreland, commenced legal action against Dar-Alawda in 2020 following complaints from local residents that the organisation was preventing public access to the basketball court it built at Montfort Park.
Public access was a key condition attached to the sale of the land, on the corner of Wendel and Henkel streets, by the council to Dar-Alawda for $100,000 in 2004.
Last year, Supreme Court Justice Melinda Richards found Dar-Alawda was in breach of the 2004 sale conditions and ordered the organisation must sell the land back to the council for $579,500. Dar-Alawda then sought to appeal that decision on the grounds that it had correctly enabled residents to apply for access to use the court, and that ordering it to forfeit the land was unfair and excessive.
Read more:
New twist to Montfort Park saga
The saga has its roots in the controversial sale two decades ago of the small block of land for $430,000 below its market value to Dar-Alawda, an Arabic-Australian community organisation also known as Dar-Al Awda and Dar Alawda.
At the time of the purchase, the land was an undeveloped grassy block, and the conditions of the discounted sale price included that Dar-Alawda would construct a basketball court that would be accessible for local residents. Breach of the conditions would entitle the council to buy back the land.
But when the basketball court was completed in 2012, it was surrounded by a sturdy three-metre metal fence and locked gate.
Residents could apply for an ‘associate membership’ to gain access to the basketball court, but by 2015 were complaining to the council that they were shut out of using the park. Attempts at mediation failed to resolve the issues, and the council began legal action in 2020.
Evidence was given in the Supreme Court that Dar-Alawda never processed any applications for associate membership and information about how to get access to the park was difficult to obtain.
The decision by Court of Appeal Justices Karin Emerton, Cameron Macaulay, and Kevin Lyons effectively upholds last year’s order for the council to buy back the land from Dar-Alawda.
While the court found that there was some prospect of an appeal being successful on three of the five grounds submitted, it dismissed the application for leave to appeal in its entirety.
Dar-Alawda was originally ordered to transfer the land on September 22 last year, and a new deadline will be required.
Dar-Alawda president Anthony Helou said Dar-Alawda was “very disappointed” with the outcome of the court hearing but declined to comment further.
Henkel Street resident Katie Fraser, who has been part of the campaign to restore ownership of the land to the council, said she and her neighbours were “delighted” that the appeal had been refused and looked forward to working with the council to regain access to the park.
“When I moved to the street I would walk past the park every day to get my child to 4-year-old kinder and I had a baby in a pram who was six months, and I thought what is that place?
“Then I found out it was a park, and I thought I would love for my kids to be able to play there. And now they are 16 and 11. Fingers crossed, we will get there eventually.”
Merri-bek Council declined to comment but Brunswick-based Deputy Mayor Lambros Tapinos said the court decision was welcome news.
“As soon as the keys are received council should remove the fence and open the place to the community,” he said.
“I would like to see basketball and futsal courts established as well as a community garden on the site.
“Council should also consult the community about what they wish to see at Montfort Park.”
Support independent local journalism
We are an independent hyperlocal news organisation owned and run by the people in your community. With your support, we can continue to produce unique and valuable local journalism for Brunswick and the inner north of Melbourne.
