In early 1984, our Society received a piece of good news, “A private kindergarten in Campsie was for sale. The Government was worried that developers might buy the property leading to a loss of child care places, and so the Government was willing to provide funding for the Society to buy the place.”
The Board of our Society was ambivalent after receiving the news. The original plan of our Society was to operate a child care centre in Sydney Chinatown area, not in Campsie. However, after considering that it would be a good opportunity to learn how to operate a child care centre and accumulate experience, the Board resolved to accept the challenge.
Facilitated by the Federal Department, the Society met with the owner of “Campsie Kindergarten’ in early September 1984 to negotiate about the purchase of the place.
The private kindergarten was located at 44 Sixth Avenue, Campsie. Both sides quickly agreed on the purchase price of Aus$250,000.
During the negotiations, it was discovered that the vendor also owned the property next door at 48 Sixth Avenue. It was a dilapidated warehouse and priced at A$40,000. The vendor would only sell the kindergarten if the Society would buy together with the warehouse.
There was a serious problem: the Government would only provide the Society with funding to purchase the kindergarten and would not provide funding for any property unrelated to the child care service.
This posed a headache for the Society: If the Society did not have A$40,000 to purchase the No. 48 property, the Government’s funding of A$250,000 would be lost. Where could our Society find A$40,000?
Our Society did not have any financial resources at that time. Neither did it run any projects or service that would generate income. When our Society approached banks or financial institutions for loans, all applications were knocked back. The responses were the same: How could you manage to repay the loans?
The Board deliberated the issue many times and finally came up with a solution in early November 1984. It was suggested settling the purchase of the No. 44 kindergarten property first and requested the vendor to give our Society one year’s time to settle the property at No. 48 giving our Society time to organize fundraising activities. Some members agreed to put up their personal property as financial guarantees. The vendor accepted the plan.
Funding was received from the Federal Government, and the purchase of the kindergarten property was settled at the end of 1984. An agreement was signed with the vendor to settle the property at No. 48 a year later. This agreement was made possible by the financial guarantee provided by Dr. Leng Tan, Dr. Tony Goh, Dr. Cecilia Fong and Mr. Henry Pan using their personal properties.
Everyone was happy and celebrated the purchase of the kindergarten which was renamed as Campsie Child Care Centre. Work also commenced to recruit staff members.
No one expected it to be a hot potato!
Relevant government departments began to come knocking on the door and said that the kindergarten did not meet regulations and rectification works were needed before it could operate. After contacting the trades people, the works were estimated to cost at least Aus$30,000.
When parents heard that the Child Care Centre was owned by Chinese, many withdrew their children from the Centre. Only half of the originally enrolled children stayed.
🤔Revenue was drastically reduced while there was extra cost for the renovation works. How would the inexperienced Society handle the situation? Stay tuned for the next episode!
