PRECEDE: Erica Maliki is a household name in Hampton Park. The mother of six has lived in the suburb for 30 years and has seen it evolve from a country town to a vibrant, burgeoning community. Erica spoke to LACHLAN MOORHEAD about her cherished family, her community campaigning and the tragedy of Hallam Road.
PULL QUOTE: “No matter how we look at the situation of what’s been achieved and what’s been done, we’re not the ones waking up every morning and looking in a bedroom where our daughter used to be and not having her there.”
A TOWN’s innocence was lost in two tragic weeks. A mere fortnight is all it took.
Long-time Hampton Park resident Erica Maliki remembers driving past Emma Lowen’s house six years ago after Em’s daughter, Riyani, was killed in the horrific car crash.
Erica and Emma, now close friends, hadn’t met yet.
On 28 June 2009, Narre Warren P-12 students and friends Riyani, 16, Anja Miller, 15, and Joel Brimble, 19, and a fourth teenager in another vehicle were all killed in the two-car collision at the intersection of Hallam and Ormond roads in Hampton Park.
A fortnight later as she drove past a roadside memorial erected for the lost teenagers, a 21-year-old woman was killed instantly when her car was hit by a B-double truck at the same intersection.
“I hadn’t met Em then, but I can remember driving past and I looked at her house and I thought, I could not imagine what’s going on in there at the moment,” Erica said.
“I knew where they lived but I had never met the kids.
“But I had heard of them through my kids and their friends. And I can remember driving past her house and I looked over and I just got this sick feeling in my stomach and I thought – what the hell would these parents be going through?”
Erica, 48, saw herself in Emma, a mother raising her kids as best she could. Erica and husband, Adel, have six children – three boys and three girls – who have all been brought up in the same house in Hampton Park.
Although Erica said they’ve had to renovate it over the years to allow for more space.
“I moved into Hampton Park in ’86. When we moved in it was our house and it was just paddock. So we’ve seen it actually grow from a little country town to a massive big suburb now,” she said.
“We actually moved in on our wedding night.
“We’re still in the same house. We’ve extended it, because we had six kids. It’s gone from a smaller house to a bigger house to accommodate everybody.
“We’ve raised all our kids in Hampton Park, they’ve gone to the schools here, it’s a good suburb.”
But after speaking to Erica it becomes clear Hampton Park is more than just a “good” suburb to her. It’s her home, complete with memories old and new.
“I think it’s the people, I think that’s one of the main things, the people,” Erica said.
“We have a really big range of different people. I’ve met some really good friends here, through my community work, through the kids, through having them at kinder and school.
“I never really wanted to move along. I’ve got a lot of memories in the house and it’s just a little bit hard to sell it and move along.”
Erica can definitely be considered one of those people who make the town click. She’s a member of the Hampton Park Networking Group, the Hampton Park Association Group, the Robert Booth Reserve Committee and several others.
And Erica was pivotal in pushing for a $1.1 million upgrade to Camms Road Recreation Reserve.
In addition to all her volunteering, Erica runs two local businesses as well as being the centre manager at the Hampton Park Shopping Centre.
“I think having six kids has made me have a lot of drive. It’s not easy bringing up one or two but bringing up six is a helluva lot more work,” Erica said.
“My oldest is 27 now and my youngest is 17.
“Plus we run our own businesses. I’ve got two businesses, I’ve got an upholstery business and I’ve also just started up a new healthcare business.
“One of the kids that actually work at our upholstery business, we took him from the Hampton Park Secondary College on work experience and never let him go.
“We like to keep our business with local people.”
Erica said it was likely her own upbringing was part of the reason why she’d never felt the urge to move her family to another area.
“I grew up in a single parent home and we moved a lot,” she said.
“I grew up with my Mum – Mum and Dad split up when I was seven. She was the best mum in the world, Alinor.
“We had a lot of good times; we had a lot of bad times too. We struggled and we did. We moved a lot, we moved from Doncaster, to Ringwood East, to Healesville, to Boronia, Boronia to Ringwood, to Nunawading.
“We moved around a lot so when I bought in Hampton Park, this was my home.”
Among all the community campaigns it’s difficult for Erica to choose which one was the most important. But the most significant may have come in the wake of 2009’s car crash tragedy – the duplication of Hallam Road.
In February this year the State Government announced a $40 million upgrade to the section of the road between Pound and Ormond roads.
And while she welcomed the new road, Erica insisted there was still more work to be done and more sections that needed duplication.
Erica was the main organiser of the Walk for Hallam Road in 2009, following the five deaths, in which the community pushed for the road to be repaired.
“I can actually remember the day that I sort of got really annoyed and I said that’s it, I’m just gonna walk down the road and lobby down the road,” Erica said.
“I sort of thought if I get down to the end of it and something happens it needs to be done properly.
“It took us about six weeks to put the Walk for Hallam Road together and we did it all the proper way.
“We did it by what the police wanted, what VicRoads wanted, what the council wanted.
“But I don’t think it was just lobbying for the road, it was the way people could get together to show their respect and support to the families that had lost their kids.”
During her research for the campaign, Erica was shocked to discover 38,000 cars used that stretch of Hallam Road every day.
“That road hadn’t changed since I got here in ’86. And I’ve got houses all around me now,” she said.
“So you’ve got a built-up area and you’ve still got a country road that’s handling all this. And then you’ve got an industrial area just up the road where you’ve got trucks coming down, and you’ve got the tip down the other end where you’ve got trucks coming out.”
As part of the Walk for Hallam Road, five doves were released to meet the sky.
“I can tell you the day we got told the road was going to be duplicated, it was … bittersweet. And it still is,” Erica said.
“To me I don’t agree with people standing on a road taking credit for something when it’s not … credit that needs to be given.
“Have respect for the kids that died there. If anyone needs to be thanked for that road, and as horrible as it sounds – it needs to be those guys: Riyani, Joel, Anja and the other two.
“At the end of the day it took five lives for them to even look at that road.”
Recently Erica had checked with Em Lowen whether she would be comfortable with a photo being taken of people standing next to the road for a News story about the funding announcement.
“I absolutely adore her (Em). Every single day I see her heartache and what she’s still going through,” Erica said.
“It’s her life. No matter how we look at the situation of what’s been achieved and what’s been done, we’re not the ones waking up every morning and looking in a bedroom where our daughter used to be and not having her there.
“I get up every morning and my children are still there.
“You can never put yourself into that situation or that position that these families are in. Birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, Easter, you know? Birthdays are especially hard because each year they’re getting that year older.
“It’s not about who gave us the money, it’s not about any of that, it’s about the situation that led up to the walk having to happen. And never forget it.
“Never forget these guys.”
When asked whether she would ever leave Hampton Park, Erica reveals she’d like to retire “somewhere different”.
But it won’t be anytime soon.
“It’s my home,” Erica said.
“And it’s been my home for 30-something years.”
