Chalet 

If you are interested in the emerging story of the Chalet's role as Australia's Spy School in the 1940's: click here Our thanks to Craig Brown for sharing this information with us

The Chalet was built in 1928 as the Club House for the "Park Orchards Country Club Estate" It was an ambitious and imaginative scheme with the idea of creating a family environment with 650 half acre blocks sold to members of the club. To ensure that it remained a residential area a covenant was placed on the land. The estate was designed around the design ideas of Walter Burleigh Griffin, frequently using curved roads following the contours of the landscape. During the Second World War the army requisitioned the Chalet and surrounding area to be used as the central strategic receiving station and wireless manufacturing unit. At the peak of the conflict, over 400 troops were stationed in the 'tent town' that surrounded the property. The Chalet, with its blackwood paneled walls remained a venue for recreation and concerts. After the war The Chalet continued to provide Park Orchards with a local entertainment venue and community meeting place, right up to November 2007 when it was sold privately and quietly. After leaving the Chalet empty for 12 months, the owners submitted a plan to Manningham Council to build an expansive double-storey aged care facility which included a proposal to bring sewerage to the property to enable the development. Click here to view the plan The Council Planning Department initially supported the application, but after a strong campaign (150 attendees at a public meeting and 150 further written protests from those who couldn't attend) Councillors voted to reject the application. The developers  nonetheless took the issue to VCAT. PORA ran a professional case against the development with professional town planning consultants providing their services pro bono. The case hinged on the availablity of sewerage. The developers produced a letter from Yarra Valley Water which could be erroneously construed as implying that sewerage was due within 2 years. Despite a subsequent correction and clarification provided by Yarra Valley Water and PORA, the VCAT member elected to stick to the notoriously pro-development script that it has become famed for, disregarded the correction, and awarded a permit.. PORA and Park Orchards residents will be continuing their battle to make the Chalet an infeasible commercial proposition for any potential buyer, so a message to any future developer of the Chalet site: You would be unwise to think that the battle is over. Invest at your peril.

We welcome your input. If you have any reports, feedback or information please email us at admin@pora.org.au or write to us at Box 86, Park Orchards, 3114.

If you'd like to be kept informed on this and other issues affecting Park Orchards, just send us an email and we'll keep you updated. Our address is admin@pora.org.au. Please include your family name and address. Also, if anyone has any old photos of the Chalet or other records of its history, we'd love to have a look at them.