History repeats in centre project

By Noel Murphy
IT’S NOTHING new to find history repeating itself but as Geelong tries to refashion itself for the future the familiarity of some pet projects is surprising.
Take the $1 billion Laurence Elms convention centre project targeted for Eastern Park’s Hearne Parade. Nothing new there.
Down the recent past we’ve heard of casino plans and other residential projects off Eastern Beach, some of them barely more than scribbled concept plans.
Mayor John Mitchell has advised the Independent he has a drawer-full of plans for the precinct.
But who would have thought the specific notion of a convention centre specifically for Hearne Parade goes back at least 55 years?
That’s right, more than half a century, back to before the Melbourne Olympics.
An Independent investigation has revealed that in October 1956, the Geelong Chamber of Commerce started the push for a convention hotel exactly where the latest Elms project, is proposed to be sited.
The intervening years have failed to elicit any such convention centre. Funny that.
Odd, too, that the notion of putting the idea to the public has evaporated down the years.
Sometimes history doesn’t repeat itself.