Ballarat Heritagewatch Inc.
Annual Report 2020
“There is no reason to think that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens cannot change the world; indeed that’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead.
It is now 22 years since Ballarat Citizens for Thoughtful Development was founded. Then the immediate challenge was unsympathetic townhouse developments. Today the challenge comes from Ballarat’s booming population growth, with a population of 130,000 estimated for 2030, and up to 200,000 by 2050. The historic heart of Ballarat is coming under increasing development pressures, and height limits loom as a major issue. The construction of the Gov Hub building next to the Civic Hall now dominates the skyline of Ballarat in a very ugly way.
It has been a very strange year, with much of our civic life shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic, which since March made it impossible for us to meet in person. Thanks to Merle Hathaway, we were able to meet monthly via Zoom.
In October 2020 we had Council elections. There was a dramatic lead-up to the election, with Council sacking the CEO Justine Lindley in May, following a damming Ombudsman’s Report on the operations of the Ballarat City Council. Terry Demeo, Director of Infrastructure and Environment resigned, as did Angelique Lush, Director of Planning. Janet Dore was appointed as acting CEO, and Natalie Robertson appointed Director of
Development and Growth. An early task of the new Council will be to appoint a new CEO. I am very pleased to report that Cr. Samantha McIntosh was returned to Council. She has been the outstanding champion of heritage in the Council now for many years. Since her term as Mayor, Samantha has continued to chair the Heritage Advisory Committee, and to work for the world heritage listing of the Victorian Goldfields, a project bringing together 13 local governments in the Central Goldfields region. It is an ongoing, huge project, with Susan Fayed managing the project from Ballarat.
The appointment of a Heritage Advisor caused confusion this year. The year began with Annabel Neylon in the role, but her contract was not renewed early in the year, and we learned in March that Ian Colman had been appointed on a part-time consultant basis as Heritage Advisor. He is well qualified and very experienced, but we feel that his appointment for only one day a week is entirely inadequate, and does not give residents access to the free heritage advisory service they have been entitled to since 1978.
I have represented our organisation on the Ballarat Heritage Advisory Committee, which only had one meeting at the Town Hall in March, followed by two Zoom meetings in June and August. There were no meetings of the Management Sub-Committee. One project coming from the Committee has been a Heritage Gaps study, which Catherine McLay and
John Dyke has been involved with . It is obvious that there are huge gaps in heritage protection of parts of Ballarat, despite the good work done in the past to identify heritage precincts. This will be an expensive and time-consuming project over a number of years.
Major issues in 2020
Electronic billboards have been becoming popular, with an application in our prime heritage area of Sturt St. At the June HAC meeting I raised this issue, and Natalie Robertson agreed that it was a priority project of her department to review the signage policy. Anotherapplication has been approved for a sign on the former Humffray St. school, fronting Mair St.
This was approved by an officer in the Statutory Planning department, without coming to Council, which was in caretaker mode at the time.
We made submissions on the vexed issue of approval of planning applications without seriously considering community concerns. In reply to my question at the September Council meeting, I was informed that councillors had the opportunity to ‘call in’ any planning application they were concerned about. This means that we must be alert to applications, and I commend Stuart Kelly for doing an excellent job in alerting members to potentially controversial applications.
The Ballarat Railway Precinct has continued as a source of concern, with the new Quest apartment building now towering over the precinct. In May a runaway train crashed through the Lydiard St. railway gates, and we have been advocating, along with Save Our Station for the reconstruction of the gates, which are almost unique in Australia. This has proved very difficult, with V Line intent on replacing them with boom gates. It will be a duty of the new Council to demand the reconstruction of the gates.
The grant by the State Government of $2.5 million to illuminate the walking/running track around Lake Wendouree and Victoria Park continued to consume much time this year, following our submissions last year. In August, Council officers released their plan to place 220 five-metre-high light towers around the edge of the lake, requiring the laying of electric cabling under the roots of trees. The My Say website published the plans, and reports of consultants on heritage and environmental impacts, which our members found totally unconvincing. We made a formal submission opposing the plan, and recommending a much gentler alternative, such as solar powered bollards. A number of members made personal submissions, contributing to over 100 objections to the plan. We have been assured that the decision on the issue must be made by the new Council, so will be another early duty of that group when it meets.
I always try to look for heritage gains in my review. They are hard to find this year. Perhaps the best outcome was saving us from a bike track down the centre of the Sturt St. gardens. We have also seen some great individual restoration projects on heritage homes, notably the external restoration of the old Baptist church in Dawson St. It is good to report progress on
restoration of the remnant of the old Ballarat East public garden in Barkly St, thanks to the interest of John Dyke. A Buninyong Botanic Gardens Conservation Management Plan is also being prepared.
Our Facebook page has continued to be very active in bringing issues to light. Again we salute Merle Hathaway and Lorraine Huddle for their efforts in monitoring the site. Thanks to Stuart Kelly and Mary Debrett for putting together a survey of candidates for the Council election, canvassing their attitudes to key heritage issues. Their replies were posted on our
Facebook page, and it was reassuring to see that a majority favoured restoration of the railway gates, and a sensitive solution to lighting Lake Wendouree. Most also favoured the need for a full-time Heritage Advisor.
Special thanks to our Secretary Penny Greenslade and assistant Jenny Sorrell, Treasurer Dinah McGance, and to Vice-President Stuart Kelly, who has been very active asking questions at Council meetings and writing letters to the editor.
As we look forward to 2021, and hopefully a return to a more normal civic life, there is much work for our organisation to do in monitoring the development of our city. I look forward to your support in protecting what we love most about our city – its built and natural heritage.
Anne Beggs-Sunter, President
Ballarat Heritage Watch 