By Danielle Kutchel
As the saying goes, when one door closes, another opens – and that’s looking to be the case for the Cranbourne RSL.
The RSL’s location on the South Gippsland Highway closed its doors for good this week, after a protracted sale process.
The building has been purchased by the Cranbourne Turf Club.
But John Wells, president of the Dandenong-Cranbourne RSL sub-branch, said the Cranbourne RSL would continue into the future.
“We’ve sold the building, not the sub-branch,” he explained.
He said the organisation was now focused on looking for a new location to house Cranbourne veterans, a process he anticipates being completed within 12 months.
Much of the money from the sale of the old Cranbourne building would be put towards finding a new home, he added.
The new location would still have space for veterans’ favourite past-times like carpet bowls.
Mr Wells said the sale was tinged with a “sense of great sadness”, as well as a sense of personal failure at having never gotten Cranbourne back in the black.
“There were losses so dramatic that in the end, they would pull Dandenong down too,” he said.
While Mr Wells was unable to reveal how much the Turf Club has paid for the RSL, he said: “it cost Dandenong $11 million; we got less than half that back”.
All memorabilia housed at Cranbourne has been put into storage and some of this is expected to end up in a planned commemoration park in Cranbourne.
“I’m a bit hurt by accusations of Dandenong taking memorabilia from Cranbourne,” Mr Wells said, adding that was “absolutely not” happening.
He said he also remained disappointed at the anger of Cranbourne members who he said hadn’t understood the inevitability of the sale.
“I think the RSL will finish up with a stronger presence in Cranbourne than it had,” Mr Wells said
“It will have a future. The RSL is still alive and will still be in Cranbourne.”
