From Canterbury Bankstown Express
12 June 2014
A MULTI-million-dollar Buddhist temple and cultural centre will be built in Bankstown after approval from the council. The $2.19 million complex will be built at 55-61 Northam Ave, on land owned by the Congregation of Vietnamese Buddhists in Western Australia, Inc. The application was lodged in November 2009 and resubmitted in February this year following the council’s original assessment.
The centre will include a public place of worship, a basement, carpark and 18 rooms for short-term residential accommodation for congregation members on spiritual respite. Bankstown Mayor Tania Mihailuk offered her congratulat-ions to the applicant. “They have done everything temple win possible to comply with the regulations and work with the council,” she said. The library and counselling services of the temple will be open from 8am to 5pm on weekdays and 3pm to 7pm over the weekend. Religious services will be lim-ited to 6.30pm to 9pm on Saturday, and llam to 2pm Sunday. Approval has been granted for three festivals to be held in the first 12 months of operation. Applicant Tien Dung Vo, of TVL Domestic Architecture Designs, said the construction of the centre would take place during the next
three years. “I think it will be a great contribution not just to the Vietnamese community but also to the wider community,” he said. “When we were designing it we were thinking of how it would also benefit the wider multicultural community.” Mr Tien said the response from the Vietnamese community so far had been very strong. “We’re very excited to start building,” he said. Click here to read the whole story.