The Hindu Society of Victoria (HSV) was founded in 1982 and has a current membership of around 2,000 members. The HSV's spiritual and cultural precinct was established in 15 acres of land at Carrum Downs,Victoria. Construction of the Shri Shiva Vishnu Temple began thereafter. On completion of the building the temple was consecrated in 1994. This is, now, the largest Hindu temple in the Southern Hemisphere. Devotees in thousands regularly attend its various Pooja Ceremonies and Festival Celebrations each year. Many of them have recorded attendances in excess of 15,000 people.

The Hindu Society of Victoria identified the need for a Temple and a Cultural Facility at the inception and the constitution has these two major objectives. Having accomplished the first and primary goal, the HSV has initiated the project of building a Cultural and Heritage Centre in the year 2004.

The Cultural Centre is planned to have a library, a heritage museum, an educational facility, venues for residential seminars, cultural displays and community functions and a large industrial kitchen and dining hall. This centre,as an extension of the Temple, is to be the venue for many cultural activities normally associated with Hindu religion that take place within the temple compound.

Before the construction of the Cultural Centre, the temple itself and temporary marquees hired on need basis filled the need for such activities. With the construction of the Cultural Centre, the Temple becomes an exclusive facility for activities of worship and prayer. Many of the temporary buildings and facilities scattered around the HSV campus will now find a permanent home.

The vision of the HSV library is to establish a public library which promotes Hindu Culture and Philosophy. It will be equipped with religious books, videos and many other media such as CDs, DVDs, etc., in English and Indian languages. These items will be available, to all registered members, on loan. There are audio-visual and reading cubicles for browsing the books and all other media

The museum will develop an extensive collection of images in the form of paintings photographs and other artefacts, as well as contemporary multimedia resources to present the various aspects of the Indian sub-continent and Hindu cultural heritage. The museum may be used by anyone wishing to hold an exhibition on payment of the prescribed fee and conforming to the policies of the HSV.

The Education facility will actively serve to educate the members of the community interested in Hindu traditions in the areas of learning Hindu philosophy and worship, Classical art forms and languages associated with Hindu culture.

The Function Hall will provide a unique venue for you to hold your weddings, special functions and celebrations, as well as being able to cater for cultural music, arts and dance performances. In addition to main function hall which has a seating capacity of 700 guests, there are smaller function halls for other occasions. The function halls are complete with back stage rooms and audio-visual facilities.

The canteen will provide tasty and healthy vegetarian food, of mainly Indian cuisine for devotees and all members of the wider community. It will be fitted with tables and chairs to seat 300 diners at a time. The canteen will continue its current operations on a larger scale of selling vegetarian food and meals for dining in at the new and larger premises or for take away. This canteen will also cater to "annadanam" or distribution free food on religious occasions.

The grand opening of the centre is scheduled for the Saturday, 5th of May 2012 commencing at 5:30 pm and is expected to end with fireworks at 9:00 pm. There will open days on the subsequent four Saturdays. All are cordially invited.

The role of the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship (formerly VMC), Government of Victoria, in partly funding the Centre is gratefully acknowledged.

The Society is looking for community participation in various ways – one may volunteer their services for the opening day and subsequent open days, one may donate books & CD's for the library or donate artefacts for the Museum. The halls and facilities are open for hire for any activity conforming to the Society's guidelines.

For further details on the Centre and ways of becoming involved with Centre please visit the HSV's website ww.hsvtemple.org.au, call Raghu on 0414 252 021 or the Centre manager.