Labor gives musos a lift in Richmond and gets rock-star reception on Victoria Street

Nestled behind Hoddle Street, Richmond, Bakehouse Studios is an oasis of calm and creativity.

A rollcall of loved Australian and international musicians have rehearsed or recorded here – Elvis Costello, Suzi Quatro, Judas Priest, Ed Kuepper, Paul Kelly, The Church, Augie March – the list goes on. But with a 100-year-old building come modern-day challenges.

Uncle Kutcha Edwards (left), Bakehouse studios owners Helen Marcou and Quincy McLean, Creative Industries Minister Steve Dimopoulos (centre rear) and Labor candidate for Richmond Lauren O’Dwyer (centre front), and performers and supporters of Bakehouse.Credit: Bianca Hall

In his later years, Uncle Archie Roach couldn’t manage the steep stairs to the upper level to play on the grand piano during rehearsals with Uncle Kutcha Edwards. It was, Edwards said on Thursday, a blow to everyone’s spirits.

Enter Labor’s Lauren O’Dwyer, who spent Thursday morning rushing between funding announcements to back her run for the inner-city seat of Richmond.

First stop was Bakehouse Studios with Creative Industries Minister Steve Dimopoulos, to announce a re-elected Andrews government would contribute $500,000 to improve disability access to the building, affectionately known as the “cubby house”.

The funding will allow Bakehouse to install a lift from the lower floor to the upper studio level, to cater for people who use wheelchairs and other mobility aids.

The internal courtyard at Bakehouse Studios.Credit: Juan Castro

“It’s important that artists can come to the spaces that they feel special in and have that accessibility, and it’s really difficult to retrofit a 100-year-old building because artists are often forced into places where there’s cheap rent,” said co-owner Helen Marcou, who has run Bakehouse with partner Quincy McLean for 31 years.

“We’re in noisy spaces, near train lines [and] the busiest arterial road in Australia, and we’ve done our best to stay in the inner city in this rambling, old building. It’s been described as the cubby house of Melbourne, but those brand-new spanking purpose-built spaces that don’t have the sweat and the heart and the soul and the stories of here.”

Musician and audiologist Siobhan McGinnity said improving access for creatives with diverse needs was crucial to opening space for them in the music industry.

“These spaces are like the arteries for artists to go through to get to the stage. So if they’re inaccessible, it kind of stops the whole blood flow of the whole disabled sector from getting up on stage. So, it’s so beautiful to have this space become an accessible artery for so many more people to flow through and become like the beating heart of the industry.”

The ALP and Democratic Labour Party have held Richmond for more than a century, but the Greens are making a concerted push for this seat, which is on a nominal margin of 5.8 per cent after redistribution.

Both parties have identified the need to win Richmond at the November 26 state election, and are throwing considerable resources at it.

Richmond, which takes in the suburbs of Fitzroy, Collingwood, Clifton Hill, Richmond, Burnley and Cremorne, has been held by retiring MP Richard Wynne for 23 years. In his place, Labor is running O’Dwyer – associate director of First Nations foundations at the Arts Centre, Yorta Yorta woman and a former staffer to retiring MP Martin Foley.

Daniel Andrews and Labor candidate Lauren O’Dwyer with members of the Victorian Vietnamese community.Credit: Bianca Hall

The Greens are running Gabrielle de Vietri, a former mayor of the City of Yarra, who is receiving strong support from federal leader Adam Bandt.

“We know that if everyone who voted Greens at a federal level votes Greens at the state level that the Greens will take Richmond this election,” de Vietri has said.

But Labor isn’t going without a fight. From Bakehouse Studios in Richmond, O’Dwyer rushed over to the newly renovated Thy Thy in Victoria Street, where Vietnamese community leaders gave Premier Daniel Andrews a rock-star reception as he promised an $800,000 funding package to support two community festivals over four years – the Victoria Street Luna Festival and Vietnamese Community in Australia TET Festival.

Andrews was cheered when he mentioned the $2.3 million investment in the Vietnamese Museum Australia, in Footscray, which is due for completion in 2025 to mark 50 years of Vietnamese migration to this country.

“That’s 50 years of hard work, 50 years of family, 50 years of giving back,” Andrews said. “I’m gonna say it again because it’s exactly what the Vietnamese community is all about – 50 years of hard work; that’s what this community is so well known for, and that’s what we’re so proud [of].”

This story is part of our in-depth local coverage of the key seats of Hawthorn, Melton and Richmond at the November state election.