Community rallies to build first domestic violence refuge after bottle shop controversy
What started as a local debate about the opening of a new bottle shop near a home for vulnerable men in Melbourne’s north has triggered a multimillion-dollar quest to build the first women’s shelter in the same community. But there are many obstacles to the thriving suburb’s ability to offer a safe haven to women fleeing domestic violence.
Thriving outer suburb of Greenvale gets its first bottle shop in 2024. It is hoped the area will soon have its first crisis shelter for women fleeing domestic violence after the owner of the shopping center where the bottle shop is located donated a vacant block of land to the cause.
The facility would be one of the first among a new wave of community-led women’s shelters proposed for Melbourne and would expand on a non-governmental model that has been successful in Sydney.
NSW-based provider Women’s Community Shelters operates eight shelters in Sydney and plans to open its first Victorian shelter on the Mornington Peninsula this year. Greenvale will be second.
“This is actually a first,” said Annabelle Daniel, general manager of Women’s Community Shelters, regarding the donation of vacant land.
“Here is a generous benefactor making an in-kind donation that will have a significant impact on our ability to hit the road, which is very exciting.”
A series of conversations between shopping center owner Jamie Gray and Greenvale Residents Association president Tamara Nolan were crucial to getting the project started.
“Jamie [Gray] “Nolan was getting a liquor license for the packaged alcohol store they were opening, which was controversial years ago,” he said. “Some didn’t want to get a license there because of Corpus Christi, which was a male-only senior care facility.”
The shelter provided these men with a way out of homelessness, which was often linked to alcohol addiction, and the discussion led to an argument between Nolan and Gray about the lack of any local shelters for women.
Gray, who owns a real estate group that has developed several shopping malls valued at more than $200 million, also owns a vacant block of land elsewhere in the City of Hume.
Gray contacted Women’s Community Shelters and offered them her land.
“I’m not looking for a pat on the back,” Gray said. “I’m doing this because I think the block of land is just sitting there doing nothing and could be put to good use.”
While grateful, Daniel warns that securing a site is no guarantee that a crisis shelter will be built.
The organization is seeking private sector donations and state government input to build the facility, which has an estimated cost of $2.9 million. It is hoped that the shelter will have enough space to accommodate six women and their children at a time.
More than one in two women seeking accommodation in crisis shelters are turned away, according to data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
“These are really the tip of the iceberg. There are so many more out there who never know they can ask for help,” Daniel said.
The institute’s data also shows that the proportion of people who say they know where to turn for foreign aid fell from 60 percent to 56 percent between 2017 and 2021.
Finding facilities in growth areas outside the suburbs, such as Hume, can be even more difficult. Daniel said women were often placed in inappropriate hotels and motels.
“It’s not an ideal situation. If it’s late at night and you have four children in a double bed and your abusive ex-partner is texting you, ‘I’m really sorry. I promise it won’t happen again, just come home,’ chances are someone will return to the abuse rather than get the support they need to leave,” she said.
Domestic violence rates in Hume are similar to the statewide average at 1386 incidents per 100,000 people, but the raw number of incidents is increasing in line with population growth in the developing municipality.
The number of people receiving support through homelessness due to domestic violence reached a five-year high of 1,832 in 2024-25. According to Crime Statistics Agency data, emergency department presentations and ambulance patient numbers also peaked at 285 and 68 respectively for domestic violence.
Hume, home to more than 270,000 people, has no established women’s crisis shelter.
A Hume City Council spokesman said local service providers were reporting long waiting lists to adapt to the crisis, with women spending more time in temporary housing before moving on to longer-term options.
“The state government has committed to funding additional crisis accommodation but has not committed to staffing these facilities, so progress is being made but gaps remain,” the spokesperson said.
A community forum about the proposed women’s shelter will be held Wednesday evening at 6:30pm at Aitken College in Greenvale.
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Adam Carey is senior urban reporter (suburban). He has held previous roles including education editor, state political correspondent and transportation reporter. He joined The Age in 2007.Connect with: X or email.
