Doos choose Marysville

By Kath Gannaway
ASHRAF and Christine Doos were living their dream in Marysville when the Black Saturday bushfires destroyed their business and their home.
“I buit my dream in 2005 … to have my own restaurant in a village with community. The fire took that dream away from me, but in the end it didn’t take that long to decide to come back,” said Ashraf.
“The community was still here and the pull to come home was enormous,” Christine said as the family celebrated the opening of their new Marysville Patisserie last week.
The opening on Wednesday, 14 September by Marysville Chamber of Commerce president David Stirling was very much a community event and was followed on Friday by a visit from Premier Ted Baillieu and McEwen MP Cindy McLeish.
The family moved to Melbourne after the fire and set up a business in Malvern.
“We were a bit like gypsies for a while after the fire … it was very much ‘where do we go from here’,” Christine said.
“Should we do it again … and what for? The town is black, friends not there any more, the business not there …” said Ashraf reflecting on the first few months.
“But we used to come up to Marysville on Sundays and my heart was here all the time,” he said.
“We had a beautiful business in Malvern, but it was not my dream.”
The dream has expanded. The new patisserie is also open as a restaurant three nights a week and they are hoping two of the three bed and breakfast units they are building will be finished by Christmas.
Ashraf and Christine said they had been touched by the response of people, and their genuine happiness for them.
“You never really think you have that much impact on anyone’s life when you are doing day to day things, but the last week with the community here, and people coming up from Melbourne has been really overwhelming,” Christine said.
Ashraf said it was wonderful also to have morning tea with the Premier who he said congratulated them and who had been very supportive since coming into government.
Mr Stirling said the opening had generated a lot of publicity which was good for the town and the additional accommodation, and having somewhere for people to eat out at night, both locals and visitors, was a huge boost also.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how big or small a business is, but definitely this is a significant business which has already brought people into Marysville, not to mention benefits from employment and for suppliers,” he said.
He said the community was now looking forward to the opening of the community centre towards the end of the year, and the police station which will hopefully be open by mid-2012.