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Council baulks at cost of buying Don Bosco
Community campaign to keep centre open gathers pace
Mark Phillips
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Merri-bek Council is unlikely to step in as the buyer of the Don Bosco complex but will attempt to reverse the Catholic Church’s decision to sell the youth centre and other buildings in Sydney Road.
A report to next week’s council meeting recommends against the council spending in excess of $10 million to purchase the land and buildings, but says it should advocate to the Salesians of Don Bosco religious order to reconsider the sale and explore options to continue operating the youth centre in its current location.
The proposed council advocacy comes as more than 5700 people have signed an online petition opposing the closure of the centre since the sale was announced last month.
The 2971 square metre property has been put on the market via an expressions of interest campaign that closes on August 20.
It could reap more than $10 million for the Salesians, who have operated a hostel and youth centre on the site since 1940.
In a statement provided to Brunswick Voice, the head of the Salesians of Don Bosco Australia-Pacific Province, Father Peter Hoang, confirmed the order was committed to its intention to sell the property.
The order is facing ongoing payouts for historical abuse cases going back decades including at the Salesian College in Sunbury, a boys school based in the Rupertswood Mansion which the order bought in 1927.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that 114 people made a claim against the Salesians between 1950 and 2010, making up 21% of all claims related to religious institutions with priests and religious brothers.
“[The decision to sell] comes after a thorough review of the site’s current use and the services the Salesians seeks to offer as part of the organisation’s youth ministry purpose,” Hoang said.
“Critically, it also considers a need to have sufficient funds to meet our obligations to survivors of historic abuse.”
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A report prepared by the council’s Director of Community, Eammon Fennessy, for next Wednesday’s meeting acknowledges the level of public concern about the sale but says for the council to purchase it would involve significant and unbudgeted up-front and ongoing capital and operational costs.
It says the condition of the buildings is unknown but on top of the eight figure purchase cost it would likely require substantial investment to upgrade them to contemporary standards.
The council already has committed almost $140 million to capital workers in the next few years, including $12.5 million which is allocated for a new early years hub in Brunswick this financial year.
Fennessy said the council already funds programs and services in Brunswick and wider Merri-bek that could be jeopardised by purchasing the Don Bosco centre.
“The current program offering and service model at the Don Bosco Youth Centre is not a model Council could operate without significant additional operational funding, or without ceasing other programs or services,” the report says.
“Operating these programs and services under Council management would require the creation of a new staff team and additional operating expenditure estimated to be in the order of $1-3 million per year … Given the scale of this existing and committed investment, and Council’s significant community infrastructure assets, programs and services in Brunswick and across Merri-bek, it is not recommended that Council purchase and operate the Don Bosco site.
“If Council were to determine to purchase and operate the site, it would need to consider difficult trade-offs, including which of the infrastructure, services or programs … could be reduced or ceased, and which planned projects could be deferred.”
Father Hoang of the Salesians said the decision to sell the property had not been taken lightly but was necessary to provide funds for compensation of victims of sexual abuse by members of the order.
“While we investigated alternative options, including selling part of the site and redeveloping the rest, regrettably, the only viable option was to sell the property in full.
“We understand this is difficult for the families and young people who have made use of the free services at the Don Bosco Youth Centre and Hostel.
“We remain committed to our mission with young people locally and are looking at how best to continue that work in the Brunswick area – including alternative locations to provide pastoral care – as we also ensure we meet our responsibilities to survivors of historic abuse.”
A public meeting will be held on Sunday to gather support for keeping the Don Bosco youth centre in community hands.
Organisers have invited Merri-bek councillors, state election candidates for the seats of Brunswick and Pascoe Vale, and current MPs and Ministers to the event, which will be held at Don Bosco between 2.30-5pm. 
Kate Longley, a parent of two energetic primary school children, is among the thousands who have signed the online petition organised by Jeremy Zylberberg opposing the potential closure of the centre.
“We’ve probably taken it for a granted a bit to be honest and never really thought about why it’s free to come in here and use it, but now it is closing I will miss it,” she said.
“I’d love the council to recognise that people want to live in Brunswick for reasons like this place and how important this place is to the community.”
Longley has been bringing her children to the centre in Sydney Road since almost before the oldest, Henrietta, who is now nine, was able to walk.
Don Bosco is a regular destination on the way home from school where Henrietta and her six-year-old brother Jesse burn off energy on the trampolines, the billiards, air hockey and foosball tables, and petting the centre’s small brood of white rabbits.
In doing so, they are continuing a tradition that goes back generations of Brunswick families.
“You have all walks of life come in here, people from Brunswick and beyond Brunswick … One day, I spoke to a mother I’d never met before whose kids were having a bounce [on the trampolines] and she told me that when she first moved to Australia, her parents brought her here and she began to make friends.
“And now she brings her kids here and it hasn’t changed at all over the years.”
Longley said without free facilities like Don Bosco, her options would be limited without paying for her children to be entertained.
“We live in an apartment without much space for exercise or a trampoline or anything like that so after school it’s a great place to come at 3.30 so they can burn off some steam without having to organise anything,” she said.
“They will always bump into a friend so you can chill out while the kids are playing.
“Screens are an ongoing battle for parents and I am always trying to find things to draw them away from their screens and this place is so delightfully analogue. There’s no QR codes and nothing on a screen.”
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I’ve had a read through the financial reports of the Salesians (it’s publicly available online): they have plenty of money available without selling the Youth Centre, more then enough to compensate all of the churches victims x1000. Including $100,656,567 of Land Held for Development (aka land banked), $1,405,560 in cash, and much more.