This was published 9 months ago
‘A city to be reckoned with’: Springvale is the beating heart of our refugee diaspora
By Cara Waters
It’s not even close to lunchtime but already the line at Bun Bun Bakery in Springvale for banh mi stretches out the door.
The bakery sells more than 1000 rolls a day with a small assembly line of staff behind the counter filling the freshly baked bread to order with roast pork, shards of crackling, julienne pickled carrot, sliced cucumber, coriander shoots and a whack of chilli.
Lunar New Year decorations hang in the Springvale market. Credit: Luis Ascui Enrique
Around the corner at the Springvale Activity Centre the market is also bustling, with shops selling red and gold decorations for the upcoming Lunar New Year, shoppers prodding trays of mangoes for freshness and women chatting in nail salons with their fingers splayed beneath tiny fans.
Signs in the market are just as likely to be written in Vietnamese or Cambodian as English in a suburb which has been a home for immigrants since it was first settled.
First stop Springvale
“When we arrived we came to Springvale, there was a big hotel there and everybody went to Springvale when they first came to Australia,” Tuong Chiem says.
Chiem owns Bun Bun with his wife Thuy La and the pair have been serving the local community for 27 years.
Like many in Springvale, Chiem arrived as a refugee from Vietnam.
He was only 14 years old when he came to Australia with his brother. The siblings found a temporary home at the suburb’s Enterprise Migrant Hostel.
One of the reasons Springvale has served as such a magnet for the Vietnamese and Cambodian communities is because of the hostel, which housed 30,000 migrants and refugees between 1969 and 1992.
Many of these migrants settled in the suburb and have stayed put.
“It was heaven,” Chiem says of arriving at Enterprise. “Australia is heaven when you come from Vietnam, everything is better.”
The reality of life at Enterprise was far from a complete utopia with a lack of interpreters, unfamiliar food and communal showers.
Orientation for new residents was limited and they at times mistook toilets for washing machines and had no idea what to do with strange implements called forks.
Tuong Chiem with wife Thuy La, owners of Bun Bun bakery in Springvale. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
However, for thousands of immigrants it was a place of refuge and safety and allowed them a foothold to build a life in Australia.
Springvale’s growth has been driven by immigration, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with only 28.9 per cent of residents born in Australia compared to 66.9 per cent of residents across Australia’s general population.
Springvale has one of the highest percentages of overseas-born residents in Melbourne with 23.1 per cent of people having Vietnamese ancestry and 22 per cent of Chinese background.
Mayor of Greater Dandenong Lana Formoso grew up in Springvale after her family migrated to Australia from the former Yugoslavia.
“It’s certainly a very different Springvale to when I was born,” she says. “It’s great, it is just becoming a lot more vibrant.”
Formoso says Springvale’s level crossing removal in 2014 was an “incredible change” for the area and she also points to the new $53 million library and community hub, which opened in 2020.
Mayor of Greater Dandenong Lana Formoso in the Springvale shopping centre. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
She speaks five languages and is reflective of Springvale’s multicultural makeup where 80.7 per cent of households speak a language other than English at home.
“This is a city to be reckoned with,” she says. “There’s going to be some really good opportunities for huge expansion and growth in this area. I think it’s really going to be a suburb that a lot of people are going to want to live in.”
Redevelopment plans
Just how Springvale should expand and grow is a matter for debate.
The council has developed a Springvale Revitalisation Action Plan, a draft of which was published in October last year.
“As many cities over time, lose their spark, you really need to start investing some time and money into revitalising them,” Formoso says.
The plan notes a surge in Springvale’s apartment market and sets out proposals for public and private sector investment in the suburb’s centre including a “rationalisation” of on-street parking and street closures, such as in Buckingham Avenue, to allow for better pedestrian movement.
A man walks his dog past Gloria Jean’s in Springvale. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
There are no costings attached to the makeover plan and the council has not approached the state or federal government yet about funding it.
Shadow planning minister James Newbury says there’s an opportunity to develop Springvale, but the government has dropped the ball.
“Springvale is historically a strong Labor area which explains why it gets no Labor government funding,” he says. “It’s a community that’s forgotten by the current government.”
Newbury points to the recent Mulgrave by-election where there was a 10 per cent swing away from Labor.
“That shows that the local community knows it has been neglected and don’t want to be ignored anymore,” he says.
Planning minister Sonya Kilkenny did not respond to a request for comment but local MP Eden Foster said the government had made vital health and infrastructure upgrades to the area “to support Springvale’s growing community”.
Daniel Cheng, president of the Springvale Asian Business Association, is preparing for the Lunar New Year Festival on Sunday. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Daniel Cheng, president of the Springvale Asian Business Association, also wants to see more investment in the area.
However, he is worried the council’s proposed street closures would make existing traffic congestion even worse.
Cheng says the precinct is thriving in the run-up to its popular Lunar New Year Festival which will be held on Sunday, with dragon dancing, fire crackers and food stalls.
“We are glad to say that compared with many areas we rarely have any vacant shops, even if we have a vacant shop it will probably last for a month then someone will occupy it very quickly,” Cheng says.
Cheng wants the council and government to focus on providing more car parking in the area.
“Because of the amount of people coming to Springvale daily, not even on the weekends, you can hardly find a car space.”
Cheng points to the ‘Number 8’ Balmoral Avenue multi-storey carpark and apartment development, which was built in 2011, as an example of welcome development in Springvale and says more is needed.
Patrick Fensham, the Victorian president of the Planning Institute of Australia, says higher density apartments could provide more housing in Springvale and add a greater mix to the suburb, which mainly comprises large detached homes.
“Its potential is still to be realised in lots of ways,” he says. “I think we need to have a greater ambition in terms of the mix of housing and the mix of opportunities.”
Fensham says Springvale could handle much greater density.
“There is an opportunity to build higher density places. Many Asian immigrants are used to living in apartments, so there is a momentum that can build.”
Shoppers in Springvale, where there is no shortage of food options.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Housing is in high demand in Springvale, reflecting the housing crisis across the country, and Salma Ahmadi, community programs coordinator at Springvale Neighbourhood House, says it’s a “huge issue”.
“We have a lot of folks coming in that are either homeless, or couch-surfing at their family or their friends’ houses and they’re looking for rental properties and can’t find anything,” she says. “It’s very tough out there.”
Walking along Springvale Road during the day there are a few people who appear to be sleeping rough, holding cardboard signs seeking assistance.
Ahmadi says the Springvale Neighbourhood House staff help get people on housing lists but they are “huge”.
“It’s an ongoing issue,” she says.
Ahmadi says cost-of-living pressures are hitting Springvale residents hard, with increasing numbers of people seeking financial assistance.
The median weekly income in Springvale is $558, significantly below the national median weekly income of $805.
The suburb still has strong working-class roots with the most common occupation a labourer and the most popular industries hospitality and healthcare.
Heroin city
Springvale has, at times, struggled to shake off a reputation for crime and drug use.
“We used to have a name called the heroin city, the drug city in Springvale that has scared a lot of people away,” Cheng says.
He says there was a push by the government to introduce a supervised injecting room to Springvale, but the local community fought against the room successfully.
“Today you hardly see any drug dealing in Springvale and that’s why Springvale has become more busy,” he says.
Data from the Crime Statistics Agency shows drug offences have more than tripled over the last ten years in the area, up from 118 in 2014 to 342 in 2023.
“Unfortunately, drug offences have risen,” Greater Dandenong police superintendent Damian Jackson says.
“Local police have conducted several recent operations and search warrants in the Springvale area targeting heroin trafficking. This has resulted in the arrest of almost 80 people in the last two months, and police will not stop working around the clock to reduce drug offences and drug-fuelled crimes in the area, with more arrests imminent.”
Sam Sokhom and Elvis Sundara practise boxing outside the Springvale Hub.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
During the same period property offences rose from 1076 in 2014 to 1827 in 2023 mainly driven by an increase in theft.
“Police are actively focused on keeping crime down and we have teams of officers patrolling the area every night targeting criminals looking to break into cars and homes,” Jackson says.
Practising their boxing on the outdoor basketball court outside the new community hub, friends Sam Sokhom and Elvis Sundara say they feel crime used to be an issue in the area but has been cleaned up in recent years.
Sokhom was born in a refugee camp in Cambodia but grew up in Springvale and still lives with his parents in the suburb.
He loves the area’s restaurants, food and vibrancy.
“This is home to me,” he says simply.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.