By Sibanengi Dube
A new film which documents the history of the Black Power Mill has been created.
The film was unveiled last week at the Sunshine library to members of the Friends of the Black Powder Mill and Sunshine District Historical Society.
Film director Stefan Raabe told the documentary captured the spirit and story of the people who saved the mill, which is located in Cairnlea, from demolition.
Raabe said the storyline of the film is about a group of people who came together in 2000 to form Friends of the Black Power Mill and defended a physical memorial piece of the history of Melbourne’s west.
“The film is about the people who stopped the council from demolishing the mill,” he said.
The mill survived demolition the friends group mobilised the community to pressurise Brimbank council to withdraw a demolition notice it had issued in 2000.
Olwen Ford, a member of the Historical Society who was part of the team that saved the mill, said they produced and circulated a brochure urging residents of Melbourne’s west to resist the demolition.
“When a demolition notice was issued, we produced a brochure about the story of the mill which made people to realise its importance and objected to the demolition,” said Ford, who also attended the show.
The Cairnlea mill worked overtime to provide gunpowder for the war effort from 1942 to 1944, and its tower is the last remaining of some 400 buildings demolished at the Albion site as it transformed into the modern day suburb of Cairnlea.
The mill ceased munitions operations after the war but continued operating manufacturing other products.
The building was recognised in 2017 as a heritage site.
