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Tower gets green light

The Greek community has voted in favour of the construction of a cultural centre on its Lonsdale St site

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Tower gets green light

Almost 800 members of the Greek community showed up for Sunday's meeting, which is the highest attendance rate in the GOCMV's history

7 Dec 2010
Laura Burgoine

The Greek community's proposal to build a 13 storey Hellenic cultural centre in Melbourne's CBD has been given the green light, following Sunday's extraordinary general meeting.

74.2 percent of members present at the meeting voted in favour of the project, which needed 66 percent of votes in order to go ahead.

Almost 800 members of Victoria's Greek community, the highest number on record, turned out to cast their votes.

President of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria (GOCMV) Bill Papastergiadis said he was thrilled with the result.

"It's a great result, and in a history of 113 years this was the largest turnout for a community meeting, so it obviously captivated interest of members who wanted to express their opinion on the project," Mr Papastergiadis said.

"We've got a clear mandate to now proceed with the project and bring it to fruition within two to three years".

Following the result there has been significant interest in the Lonsdale St project from financial donors, Mr Papastergiadis said.

"Immediately after the meeting I was approached by a community group member saying he would be recommending to his board to give us $250,000 as a starter towards the building," Mr Papastergiadis said, adding "we suspect there'll be a lot more of these types of donations".

The next step will now be finalising the planning process with Melbourne City Council, and also seeking federal funding, Mr Papastergiadis said.

"We're excited, for our members but also for the entire general Greek Australian population," he said.

"Symbolically this project will revitalize the precinct in the city and will be a beacon for Greeks all around the world."

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Comments

Congratulations indeed to the Greek Community. I have been a member for some time - not because I ever wanted to but because my dad signed me up. I have to say however that this is the first time I actually feel as though something is happening. I feel as though what feels like an old man's coffee club is finally becoming something that we can all be proud of. Keep up the good work.
Submitted by G Man on Thu, 2010-12-09 07:38.
Congratulations to the committee and membership of the Greek Community of Melbourne for achieving this important milestone. The GOC of Darwin, have prime realestate however we are led by a committee and a disproportionate number of donkeys that are frightened by the prospect of progress thus leaving the 10 thousand or so Greeks in Darwin adrift, rudderless and in grave danger of never bothering to promote Hellenism and its ideals. We have become a demoralised shell of our former self where decades ago there was the vision and desire to build a school to teach Greek on Saturdays, regular events and parties were held with the aim of raising funds as well as having fun. Alas, the parties and fund raising are over, the school is barely functioning are the once a year Glendi held in June only makes money because the government subsidises it. Our once proud hall that sits on prime real estate can only be used for the odd baptism, with no music allowed thanks to the Christian Taliban that have taken over. Once again there are many of us in Darwin however that are well aware of the progress that you have made in Melbourne and I congratulate you for your efforts. Bravo paidia, bravo.
Submitted by philly on Tue, 2010-12-07 22:35.

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