John Donohue Auto Repairs wants to stay in Manningham as it approaches 50 years in business
There might be a few doughnuts done in Bulleen — or outside Parliament House — next month as a car repairs business in the path of North East Link reaches a massive milestone.
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A veteran Manningham mechanic is on the verge of a golden milestone as his family business turns 50 next month.
But unfortunately for John Donohue the next 50 years aren’t as secure, with his Greenaway St business in the proposed path of North East Link.
Mr Donohue, 55, began working with his late father John Snr in 1989 and took over the business when his father retired in 2010.
He said he was destined to follow in his father’s footsteps from a young age.
“When I was five or six I used to go to work with Dad, and I’d come home and Mum would say, ‘those clothes aren’t going in the wash, they’re going straight in the incinerator’
“I used to come home absolutely black and I’ve always been around the environment of getting dirty and greasy, it’s in our blood a little bit.”
Mr Donohue’s dedication to the business paid off when he won the major honour at last year’s Manningham Business Awards.
He hopes to remain in the Manningham area as his business faces compulsory acquisition from the North East Link Authority.
“I don’t for a minute dispute that we need the road, the area has become very clogged with traffic,” Mr Donohue said.
“But I am about getting the right outcome for us going forward … I have a very small captive area for my clients.
“For me to move to Ringwood, Blackburn, Lilydale or Eltham would be suicidal.”
Mr Donohue joked that he and the team might do burnouts in front of Premier Daniel Andrews’ office for their 50-year milestone and to show their dissatisfaction for the location of road project.
“We’ve only ever worked out of Manningham and we need to stay in Manningham to survive,” he said.
Bulleen state Liberal MP Matthew Guy said the potential loss of more than 100 businesses and 1200 jobs in the Bulleen Industrial Precinct was “hugely significant and hugely distressing”.
“There’s going to be 1200 workers who will lose their job with nowhere to go, more than the closures of Hazelwood or Ford, and I don’t think the Government has any care in the world about those people,” he said.
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Mr Guy called for the Government and the authority to come forward with compensation plans for affected businesses.
NELA chief executive Duncan Elliott said the formal acquisition process would begin in the coming months. and compulsory acquired businesses would have up to two years to relocate.
“We have been talking to businesses in the Bulleen industrial precinct for the past two years and helping them through this time, which we know has been difficult,” he said.
“We are putting pressure on our world-class bidders to minimise the project footprint, and reduce impacts even further on the Bulleen industrial precinct”.