Hats off to reporter Neelima Choahan for profiling the response of Parkville residents to the planned building of the Werribee South youth justice centre and the subsequent closure of the Parkville youth detention centre.
These select members of a suburb with a median sale price of $1.83 million seemed almost whimsically sentimental about the closure of Parkville, despite the fact that conditions within its walls were described as "appalling" by the Ombudsman's office six years ago. By the end of the piece, one could have reached the view that Werribee should be grateful to have this example of inner-city edginess relocated to their doorstep.
Claiming the 3000 Werribee residents who rallied in Station Place on Monday night were "overreacting" whilst bemoaning that such people "don't like any change", these Parkvillians dismissed the outer suburban fuss and said they would prefer their "juvie'' over having "thousands of apartments" across the road.
Having long been the home of hectares of vegetable farms, Werribee South has recently seen a tourism/events-based resurgence built around the Mansion Hotel, Open Range Zoo and polo/equestrian fields. The Mansion recently hosted "So Frenchy, So Chic" which attracted so many "fly-in fly-out" inner city types that Aunty Meredith would have been chuffed.
So with residents justifiably proud of an events precinct attracting visitors who may or may not have once derided the area via the tired line "there is a little bit of us all in Werribee", the government has decided, without consultation, to build a new youth detention centre within a handful of kilometres of the Mansion. With Werribee a Labor stronghold for 27 years, you can almost picture Andrews and local MP Tim Pallas lying back with their feet on their desks saying "what does it matter, they'll vote for us anyway!".
Or will they? As the Nationals'Â loss of Shepparton in 2014 proved, a heartland spurned can be as damaging as bad plumbing and just as unpleasant. While Labor have other battles on their hands, including a ding-dong against the Greens in the marginal seat of Brunswick it may not pay to blithely dismiss the west.
As the tractors riding down Watton Street on Monday signified, the residents have overcome city hall before, by rallying against the planned toxic dump in 1998. Whether the new "juvie" goes ahead or not, it won't be without the voices of Werribee being heard.
These voices may not be as fashionable as the "thwack" of a polo ball or the "background noise of a busy city" that the Parkville residents enjoy but, if ignored, they could cause a massive stink that Labor simply doesn't need.
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