PRECEDE: Cockatoo stalwart Dot Griffin was this year’s Stan Henwood Award recipient. Gazette journalist MATTHEW SIMS spoke to the long-time community supporter about her hopes for the future of Cockatoo and how the small efforts which go into making a community strong.
BREAKOUT QUOTE:
“For community, it’s all the little things which add up. They’re the things that make a community.“
In August 2011, Cockatoo community member Dot Griffin stood on the roof of the McBride Street Kindergarten, protesting against Cardinia Council’s decision to demolish it.
Her quick thinking helped postpone work on the project for the next eight weeks, leading to the decision to be eventually overturned.
Now, close to 13 years later, the building still stands and has operated as the Ash Wednesday Bushfire Education Centre (AWBEC) after the building and grounds were heritage listed in 2011.
While Dot is not proud of what she did and apologised to the broader community after the protest, she said she was grateful that her actions resulted in the building being saved and for the support of the broader community.
“If they all followed me, we’d have been in massive trouble,“ she said.
“We were upset with the decision,“ she said.
“It’s about finding people and working towards something together.“
Dot said within minutes of sending a text to those protesting the demolition of the building, people converged on the building.
“You would watch people walk down the hill,“ she said.
“It was quite amazing to watch actually.“
Dot grew up in Clayton and later moved to Lysterfield, becoming a Sunday school teacher in 1965.
While still in school, she had four part-time jobs including at the McCullock House nursing home before starting work as an apprentice hairdresser in 1967.
Dot then moved to Cockatoo after marrying her husband Collin in 1974, with the pair leading the youth club at St Marks in Emerald.
She then became a member of the vestry at St Marks in 1976 until 1980, then serving as a Sunday school teacher until 1984.
Dot has three children, with her work for the community also including serving on the local kinder committee and becoming the president of the McBride Strett kindergarten in 1980.
Destruction came to the quiet town of Cockatoo in the form of walls of fire in 1983, with six people losing their lives and more than 300 buildings and homes destroyed as a result of the Ash Wednesday bushfires on 16 February.
Dot could still recall seeing people standing along McBride Street, watching the flames tear through Wright Forest.
She visited the local fire station to find out what was the best action for her and her family to take, with advice being to leave via Woori Yallock Road or take shelter at the McBride Street kindergarten, then informing a lot of the people watching on McBride Street and then telling every third house along her former home street of Ivy Street to get out of town immediately.
“I helped evacuate a lot of the town,“ she said.
“When you’re doing it, it’s not a big deal.
“I knew a lot of people have done as much if not more than me.“
Dot was one of the main town members who met with Princess Diana and then Prince Charles after the fire, with Princess Diana also planting a tree outside what is now the AWBEC.
In November 1984, Dot received the Royal Humane Society of Australia’s Bronze medallion for her efforts during the Ash Wednesday bushfires.
She said the fire impacted a lot of people negatively.
“We had a lot of people who moved out,“ Dot said.
“It was a very emotional time for a lot of reasons.“
However, she said the fire strengthened her and others’ focus on supporting the town.
“You don’t think about yourself,“ Dot said.
“I got more involved in the community.“
“We’re all very community minded.“
She said the community pulled together in the aftermath of Ash Wednesday.
“We had people living on the floors in the hall,“ Dot said.
“We’ve grown a lot since Ash Wednesday.“
“I think people are more relaxed out in the country,“ she said.
In the aftermath of Ash Wednesday, Dot realised the town also needed to recapture its history, with the fire destroying a number of history archives.
She bought a tape recorder and set off with her youngest daughter to tape as many of the older residents of Cockatoo.
What began as a simple journey back through history became a pilgrimage that would take a number of decades to realise, eventually resulting in the book ’Cockatoo – Voices of the Past’, released in January 2020.
Other initiatives and achievements led by Dot included creating a town mural, being a foundation member of the Cardinia Foundation, and advocating for a Bendigo Bank community bank in 2002, with Cockatoo and Gembrook then joining the Upwey and District Community Bank of Bendigo three years later.
She also worked with Brett Barker to produce a newsletter to help the community, due to isolation caused by Covid lockdowns, with the newsletter now in its fourth year with 450 newsletters produced.
The Cockatoo History and Heritage Group has now started working on a book about Cockatoo’s street names, with hopes it would be ready for publication on Australia Day 2025.
Dot said she believed Cockatoo had a strong future ahead of it, with a popular Over 50s group meeting up regularly and about 80 to 100 people working on a large needlework project to depict the history of the town, a project set to take more than two years to complete.
“It’s allowed people to come outside of themselves,“ she said.
“We’re a good mix of people.
“I think we are a very resilient town.
Dot said she could not take all the credit for Cockatoo’s prosperity, but said the success of any town was the result of many people working together.
“For a community, it’s all the little things which add up,“ she said.
“They’re the things that makes a community.“
Dot said she was hopeful Cockatoo would continue to grow through co-operation and collaboration.
“I think our relationships with each other make the community what it is,“ she said.
“A single person cannot hope to achieve change, they need to work with community and like minded people and together they achieve.
“Please know that I have never tried to do things by myself, there is so many great and deserving people in every community.“
