Parents furious as university moves to evict kindergarten

Dozens of families in Melbourne’s inner south face losing their child care after a community kinder was served an eviction notice by its landlord, one of the city’s major universities.

Swinburne University is moving to re-zone the Union Street, Windsor, land to sell it for development and has given the 47-year-old Windsor Community Children’s Centre notice to vacate the site it has occupied since 1997.

Sam Vale, the Windsor Community Children’s Centre acting director, with youngsters (from left) Lance, Thea and Billie.Credit: Penny Stephens

But local families whose children attend the centre are furious at the prospect of the eviction, slated for the end of 2025. The centre says it has no chance of securing a new building in the suburb, where land values are soaring.

“If we cease to exist, the challenge for the community is where they’re going to go,” said Sam Vale, the centre’s acting director.

Swinburne said it was disposing of the land – the last piece of property it owns in the area after it moved its operations to Hawthorn – because the site was surplus to requirements and that it had been transparent in its dealings with the kinder.

When the property was offered to state, federal and local governments last year – in accordance with the “first refusal” protocols for disposal of state-owned land – there were no takers.

The re-zoning application, which would allow up to five storeys on the present low-rise site, then went ahead.

Stonnington council, which will consider the re-zoning at its meeting on Monday, told The Age it couldn’t afford to buy the site.

The land is worth several million dollars – and much more if the re-zoning bid succeeds.

Vale said the centre had already been forced into a restructure to meet the $121,000 annual rent charged by Swinburne and that closure would have a devastating effect on families.

“We’ve got over 75 families who are currently accessing care through us, all the way from the youngest children of six months all the way through to kinder,” she said.

Swinburne said the centre had been given almost three years’ notice of its intention to sell.

“This provided the operators ample time to make alternative arrangements, including purchasing the centre, an offer that was declined,” a university spokesperson said.

The centre, however, denies it was ever offered the opportunity to buy the site.

With Victoria’s state-land standing advisory committee due to consider the zoning application next month, a grassroots campaign to save the kinder by parents and kinder staff is gaining momentum.

Sam Vale: “If we cease to exist, the challenge for the community is where they’re going to go.”Credit: Penny Stephens

Parent Dale Martin told The Age there was frustration among local families.

“The community wants to ensure that a valuable community asset continues to serve future generations of local families and is frustrated that their voices and needs are being lost in a labyrinth of policies and procedures by Swinburne University, state and local government departments,” Martin said.

Local Greens MP Sam Hibbins, who has taken up the Windsor Community Children’s Centre’s cause in state parliament, said the centre was essential for local families.

“There is high demand for good quality, not-for-profit early education providers,” Hibbins said. “Kicking them out, rezoning the land [and] selling it off would be a massive kick in the guts to our community.”

A Stonnington spokesperson said on Wednesday that it was not financially viable for the local council to guarantee the centre’s future by buying the Union Street site.

“Council was not in a financial position in March last year to purchase the property due to a range of external financial constraints beyond its control,” the spokesperson said. “On the question of the future of the childcare centre, council will explore what options are available to assist affected families.”

Inquiries to the office of Early Childhood Minister Lizzie Blandthorn were referred to Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny, whose office did not respond to a request for comment.

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