Street closure proposal angers Greek church congregation
Some in the Greek community fear they are being pushed out of Brunswick
Father Ephraim Kourtoglou with members of his parish fear the impact on their church of the closure of Staley Street as part of the proposed new park on the vacant block behind them.
PICK any Sunday morning when the weather is good, and the small car park adjacent to St Vasilios Greek Orthodox Church in Staley Street will be overflowing with parishioners ranging in age from a few months to their late-90s.
The air thick with spoken Greek, they pour out of the church building at the end of the service, the young and the old, parents joined by their children from Sunday school, for a coffee, a sweet treat, but most importantly an opportunity to chat and catch up with familiar acquaintances.
St Vasilios – or St Basil’s in English – is more than a place of worship but a community hub and a centre of pride for Greek migrants who came to Brunswick in waves in the postwar years and have left their mark on the suburb.
For some older members of the congregation, the church and the activities it supports is their main connection with the outside world.
There is not a spare parking space in the street outside the church, nor in the car park across the road. Cars are temporarily double parked almost all the way back to Stewart Street, engines humming as they pick up worshippers after the service.
But it is a Merri-bek Council proposal to close not only the public car park, but part of the street itself, that now has the church community incensed like never before.
There is a universal feeling among the St Vasilios community that if the proposals are adopted by the council they could be the death knell of a church that has been at the same location for six decades by restricting access to it.
On a recent Sunday after the religious service had ended, parishioners approached Brunswick Voice one by one to vent their anger and frustration at the proposal. Some indicated that the concept feels like a slap in the face after the contribution they and their forebears have made to this community over many decades.
They told emotion-charged stories of how their parents and grandparents, many long deceased, had built the church as a small part of their Greek homeland in Melbourne’s inner north. They also talked of the larger role St Vasilios plays in the community through food banks, mental health services, and support for homeless people.
“This is very much an active and alive community, it goes four, five generations from the elderly to the children and the great-grandchildren,” said Olga Papas, who has been attending St Vasilios since she was a girl after her family migrated to Melbourne more than 60 years ago.
“If you block off the street and make it residents only and limit the parking facilities, what options do you give us?
“It’s like telling us after 60 years, you’ve worked hard in this country, you provided everything for us but now we don’t need you any more. You’ve got an expiry date and off you go on your way.
“We don’t want that, we are here to stay. The Spartans said ‘know thyself’ and we are going to fight.”
While the street would not be fully closed, it would become inaccessible to through traffic between Blyth and Stewart streets, and there would be a loss of parking in the area.
Merri-bek Mayor Nat Abboud said the street closure was only one of the options under consideration and the council was a long way from making a decision about the preferred concept for the new park.
Parish priest Father Ephraim Kourtoglou said the church had no objection to the park being developed on the vacant land, but closing the street to through traffic would be too much.
A typical Sunday service at the church will be attended by upwards of 300 worshippers of whom a large proportion are elderly and rely on driving or being driven, he said.
Special services such as Easter or name days can attract more than 700 worshippers, and the church also conducts a number of weddings and funerals every month which have large attendances.
If off-street parking is removed and the middle of the street closed, Father Ephraim said many members of his congregation would no longer be able to attend the church for religious services and other regular cultural and community events such as an elderly citizen’s club every Monday and Greek language classes for children on Saturday mornings.
“We don’t disagree with more open space but the council must try to balance different needs,” he said.
“We don’t like to cause problems but we want the council to hear us. We want them to know they cannot ignore our views.
“We want to know our opinions are being taken seriously because it [closing the street] will have a major impact on this area.”
Option 1: park only
This map shows what the park would look like if the car park was untouched.
Option 2: park and car park
This map shows what the park would look like if the car park was incorporated into it.
Option 3: park in Staley Street
This map shows what the park would look like if Staley Street was closed.
One option would simply redevelop the 946 square metre vacant block into a new park; a second option would incorporate part of the Staley Street public car park, increasing the new park’s size to about 1600 square metres.
The third and most contentious option would be to close Staley Street to through traffic to gain a further 400 metres of open space for the park.
This would remove about 20 on and off-street parking spaces.
Staley Street connects Stewart and Blyth streets. There are about two dozen properties that are accessed from Staley Street, including the church.
On-street parking and the public car park are essential to manage spillover from the church’s small car park which only has 14 spaces.
Parish member Theo Theodorou said alternatives suggested by council representatives, such as bike riding or carpooling were unfeasible.
“Some of our members have been coming here since the church opened in 1962 and they’re aged in their 80s now,” he said.
“They can’t ride bikes when they’re 80-years-old or park 300 to 400 metres away from the church and walk that distance to come here, especially if they have mobility issues.”
Theodorou said the church was open to discussing the option to partly close the public car park if on-street parking was reconfigured to create more spaces. But he said the church could not accept the option of closing Staley Street to through traffic.
People living in the area are also concerned that closing Staley Street would push more traffic into smaller streets, including Edmends Street which runs parallel and is only configured to be one-way.
They said semi-trailers delivering to the IGA supermarket used Staley Street, and the public car park was also occupied every day by the owners and staff of shops who couldn’t park on Sydney Road itself.
Another member of the parish, Dennis Raftopoulos, said many in the Greek community felt newcomers to Brunswick were being given preferential treatment.
“You trade one community for another and they don’t forget,” he said.
“There’s no amount of word play from a politician that can say ‘blah-blah-blah’ – everyone’s going to say they didn’t care about us.
“That’s what’s in their heads and that’s what goes on the ballot. It’s just how it is.”
Shortly before public consultation began on the new park, Randazzo ward councillor Liz Irvin told Brunswick Voice in October that closing the street would enable the council to be more ambitious with a larger park to cater to different users.
“It’s a big change to go from a through road to not being one, but there’s lot of spaces in Merri-bek where it’s been done successfully,” she said.
But two other Merri-bek councillors who have Greek heritage, Helen Politis and Katerine Theodosis, say they share many of the St Vasilios’ community’s concerns about the proposal.
The federal MP for Wills, Peter Khalil, has also called on the council to listen to the church community.
Abboud said the council was committed to listening to the community and considering all feedback before making any final decision about the park next year.
“We are pleased that so many community members, organisations and businesses have shared their feedback on the three options put forward,” Abboud said.
“This is why we consult with the community – to hear ideas and consider feedback to help shape the concept that is presented to the council for consideration.”
Given the level of public interest in the new park, Merri-bek Council has extended the period for public comment until Friday, December 12.
The council has budgeted $120,000 this financial year for planning and design of the new park. The preferred concept will be decided in the first half of next year and the park is expected to open in 2027.The Greek Orthodox Church of the Presentation of Our Lord in Coburg.
Coburg Greek church petition nears 4000
The council is also under fire from another Greek Orthodox church community in Coburg, where an online petition opposing part of the new redevelopment strategy for central Coburg has attracted more than 3900 signatures in a month.
The petition has been started by members of the parish of The Presentation of Our Lord church in Victoria Street, near Coburg Station.
They say a proposed eight-storey residential tower on the public car park opposite the church would create “irreversible damage to one of the most active, culturally significant institutions in the municipality”.
On Wednesday, Father Leonidas Ioannou, one of the two parish priests at The Presentation of Our Lord, told the final council meeting of the year that the plans directly jeopardised the future of the church and its range of religious and community services, including an annual Greek festival and Easter celebrations which are held outside in the street.
He said the church had welcomed initial discussions about the new library and piazza that will be built on part of the car park on Victoria Street but had been shocked when plans were released showing the piazza had been moved and the eight-storey building in its place.
“For our 8000 [weekly] visitors and the broader community we need to continue using this space freely and interactively for the generations to come,” he said. “Can the building please be moved.”
Public consultation on the central Coburg redevelopment closes next Thursday, December 18.
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