Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The old Gulgong hospital building is set to be demolished after the Joint Regional Planning Panel overturned council’s decision to keep the 113-year-old structure standing.
Councillors voted unanimously in July to refuse a development application by NSW Health to demolish the building, after council staff had recommended the demolition be approved.
The decision was referred to the independent Joint Regional Planning Panel for review, and the panel met at Gulgong RSL on Tuesday to hear from council, NSW Health and Gulgong residents and decide the building’s future.
Speakers from Gulgong argued for the building’s preservation and re-use, or at a minimum proposed that it should be “mothballed” until an opportunity arose to repurpose it.
“It is a listed heritage item, and I believe it should never have been even considered for demolition,” said Mudgee architect Barbara Hickson.
“Despite some of the really interesting ideas here today – and it was really interesting to hear about Nancy Wake – no funding source has been identified.”
School principal Alan Walker was one of many who spoke for the building’s historical importance, saying he could see that Gulgong’s heritage buildings gave his students a sense of pride and community identity.
Mike Sweeney proposed that the building be renamed the Nancy Wake Memorial, revealing that World War Two’s “White Mouse” had her first training as a nurse at the Gulgong Hospital after running away from home in 1928.
Joan Tamburini of the Save the Old Gulgong Hospital Committee said the building should have been available for resale when it ceased to operate as a hospital.
She said NSW Health’s claim that the building needed to be demolished to make way for future expansions of the MPS was “a whopper”, particularly as the demolition proposal only sought to destroy the building to its foundation level.
Council staff told the panel their original recommendation to permit the demolition had been based on the expense of restoring and finding a use for the building, which outweighed the argument for its preservation.
“[NSW] Health has no funding available to restore and maintain the building, and if it did, it would come at the expense of other projects,” said Mark Lamond of NSW Health infrastructure .
“Despite some of the really interesting ideas here today – and it was really interesting to hear about Nancy Wake – no funding source has been identified.”
When the panel asked Mr Lamond about selling the building to the community if NSW Health had no need for the land, he said no offer had been made and he had not seen projections to confirm whether the space would be needed.
The panel left the room to confer before announcing that it would recommend the building’s demolition.
While acknowledging the building’s historical value, the panel said its heritage significance had been damaged by insensitive renovations throughout the twentieth century.
The panel said no reliable funding source for the building’s upkeep had been proposed, and the building had become a source of health and safety issues.
The judgement was met with protests from the Gulgong residents in the room, who complained that the panel had not listened to them, and that the result was “disgusting”.
“The room erupted,” said Joan Tamburini. “Most unusual for conservative Gulgong.”
The Save the Old Gulgong Hospital Committee met last night to decide what further action, if any, they could take on the issue.
