HERITAGE, WOOLSTORES & HERITAGE

Examiner May 14 2012

The flood authority was willing to foot the estimated $250,000 demolition bill if the council agreed to the demolition yesterday. Only the smaller wool store will be levelled, leaving the larger Roberts wool store intact as well as the silos.

A consultant hired by the council found there was significant cultural heritage at the site and the structures would satisfy listing under the Tasmanian Heritage Register. Council general manager Robert Dobrzynski sought a peer review of the findings, which found less heritage value in the buildings ... watch this space for more on this story as it shifts around

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A CHRONOLOGY:

• The old Websters Woolstore was demolished.
• The Silos were purchased by Mr. Stuart’s company for a Hotel.
• The State Government paid for an extra levee to protect the Silos for Mr. Stuart’s benefit.
• Mr. Stuart then reduced the capacity of the Hotel development.
• Mr. Stuart now offers to demolish the Roberts Woolstore to obtain the roof trusses to use in his Hotel, providing the Launceston Ratepayers pay to remove the asbestos from the structure.
• The LCC plans now show changes to connect public walkways directly into Mr. Stuart’s Hotel, and the extensive garden will become effectively an integral part of the Hotel’s setting; a very large public carpark will be constructed by LCC (this allows Mr. Stuart to convert his under-cover car park to a Trade Exhibition Centre from time to time – the use for which the Wool Store could ably be put, but Stuart gets the income); and there is a FOOT BRIDGE to be constructed across the North Esk River to allow Silo Hotel customers to more-easily connect to Seaport and the City without trudging all of the way past Bunnings...... More as this story unfolds

The silos under construction – The Examiner
OCT 31 2014 • OCT 30 2014 •  OCT 15 2014 • SEPT 22 2014 
MAY 29 2013 • MAY 14 2012 • NOV 2011 • JUNE  14 2012

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LETTER: Demolish The Woolstore?

There’s absolutely no reason for people to visit Launceston. Nothing to see. Tourism is the life blood that keeps the world living.  Can you imagine our promotional brochures. Come visit Launceston and see the biggest bitumen city centre car park in all of Australia.  We call it The Hole in the Heart.  It’s unique.  But hurry.  Must end soon.  Oh, didn’t I say ?  There used to be an historic building on the site but it got in the way of development.    Oh, but that didn’t happen anyway.

But read on.  The brochure has more.  Across the little muddy creek on the other side of town, you will come to North Bank.  It’s brand new.  It’s a great green paddock.  It’s just about as unique as the The Hole in the Heart. For you see, there used to be a wonderful historical building on this site also.  But out came the same old argument, it got in the way of development.  Ah, but the glossy pamphlet will say, our leaders learnt a lot in the intervening years. So they placed for your enlightenment, in the left hand bottom corner of the site, all nicely tucked away, some interesting interpretive material of historical value representing the former building’s footprint.  But sorry, the building had to go.  You must see, it got in the way of the physical connectivity and cohesive integration of the site.  It got in the way of enhanced design development, of a cohesive interrelationship with the hotel.  And the dear old historic building anyway was showing it’s age, poor thing.  It needed rehabilitation and on-going maintenance.  But wait, there’s more.   In  times of global warfare where nothing is safe, the historical value of the site is embedded into it’s very soil.  Yes, that’s a flash of brilliance – knock down the historical industrial building and bury it’s footprint. 

No dear tourist, I’m not making this up.  It’s all there in the glossy black and white demolition brochure presented to council yesterday in front of an unbelieving, shocked public gallery.  And mentioned therein, several times, is the historical and cultural value of the site.

So that’s our tourism livelihood knocked down. Our financial well being demolished.  And the city dies as it’s heart stops.

JIM DICKENSON, Launceston.

C H SMITH SITE: Subject of Interest

CH Smith Building - 30 years of Art Deco neglect

For Context Go To: http://modernismtas.blogspot.com.au/2009/10/northern-tasmania-newspaper-examiner.html

APPLICATION REFUSED

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SAVE OUR STORIES SAVE OUR HERITAGE

A view of the old Cordial Factory/ Flour Store on the C H Smith site when the waters edge came right to the door and ships were easily loaded/unloaded pre 1900 (photo probably c 1870).

This building was one of the first to be seen by visitors as boats arrived in Launceston on their way to Queens Wharf in the North Esk River to tie up......and also the last vision as boats left to take our young soldier recruits off to the Boer War and WW1.

This old relic is a must-save as it is older than any building surviving in the City of Melbourne.

Please don’t let it be knocked down.

GO2 ...  LAUNCESTONaccountability BLOG

GO2 ...   TASratepayers BLOG

Have Your Say

Comment Below

No simple/lazy solution on factory site ...REALLY!?

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"A DOMINO effect of procedures needs to take place at the C.H. Smith site quickly, for any development to go ahead according to the developer. Brile financial controller Peter Velt told The Examiner yesterday, there was no simple solution and a number of options were being considered ... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

The opportunity for 'the simple solution' here was squandered a long time ago. HPS was not around when those opportunities existed but others were. The driver here seems to be development at any cost. Maybe, just maybe, there is some room for some meaningful public consultation in the search for a solution. What about the precinct's Community of Ownership & Interest?

All wisdom does not always reside in academic institution. Practical people with experience may have something to offer.

Launceston's Heritage At Risk

Save Launceston's Heritage

It's

                          Our cityscape
                                     Our heritage buildings
                              Our streetscapes
                   Our cultural landscape
                                   Our stories 

                                            Our placedness

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THE PONRABBEL

The PONRABBEL  operated as a steam 'bucket dredge' in the Tamar River from the 1920s until the 1960s. She is the stuff of legends. The Port of Launceston Authority was determined that as many ships as possible should berth at wharves close to the city centre. Attempts to move the port further down the river were vigorously resisted as Launcestonians imagined their city as a port ... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

The PONRABBEL lay at rest just off Tamar Island

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Launceston's Prince's Square

Originally a clay-pit where convicts made bricks for the construction of St Johns Church, Princes Square is an extraordinary square with a colourful history. Princes Square was part of Launceston's network of planned public places, a formal and organised public space that demonstrated European sophistication, and remains an unusually intact and original 19th century town square. It was created in the image of similar British designs, its elm trees, like its name, suggested its suitability as a site of royal celebrations. Before the square was opened in 1859, the site had been used as a military parade ground before being set aside as a public reserve in 1826. In 1853 it was where the people of Launceston celebrated the cessation of the transportation of convicts, and the Jubilee of the foundation of the Colony of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on 10th August 1803. In 1834, Prince's Square was rumoured to have been the site of a public execution of two bushrangers ... Click here to go to source and much much more!

Launceston C 1900 & C H Smith

Here is the c1900 photograph of Launceston, with C H Smith's complex in the centre foreground. The muddy foreshore is much as was described in 1806 when the place was first settled by Europeans. 

Later after 1912, that whole area was reclaimed and to the right hand side became what is now Royal Park and today is fronted by the Seaport Development. The canals that had been dug through the mud to reach the warehouses had by this stage been filled in but the little sailing ketch was able to reach what was called Gunn's Wharf (Gunn's Mill and Timberyard buildings are immediately behind) and the large building to the left is the Malthouse for the old Tamar Brewery owned by Scott & Griffiths.

This site was not purchased by C H Smith until 1937 and some of the old brewery buildings remained there until mid 1970's when it was demolished for the Northern Outlet Extension Road.

There is quite a bit of Launceson's heritage invested in this site.

AN OLD OLD STORY

UNDER THREAT NOW
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Launceston’s heritage fabric has been placed at risk by The Launceston City Council

The Interim Planning Scheme was both flawed and incomplete and this must be a concern to all citizens of the city.

The community should not sit back and allow Launceston City Council to devalue:

• Our cityscape
• Our heritage buildings
• Our streetscapes
• Our cultural landscape
• Our stories and placedness

The Heritage Protection Society (Tasmania) Inc met with the Minister for Planning on 20^th June and below is an extract of our letter 23^rd June following that meeting.

"Local Government has a responsibility pursuant to the Act to preserve heritage and this includes keeping their planning schemes up to date by reviewing them every 5 years, including their heritage lists as a matter of course. It is regrettable that Local Government, including Launceston, the largest and wealthiest municipality, has not delivered on these responsibilities. By having an up to date list of heritage places, a greater level of certainty exists.

Unashamedly repeating what we wrote 3 months ago, there are a very great number of issues, errors, inconsistencies, omissions and inadequacies with the Interim Planning Scheme, not to mention that many aspects from the previous scheme were not incorporated into the interim scheme, and resulting in an extremely deficient and inadequate document, not even representing a 'status quo' situation on many fundamental aspects of planning that have been in place for the previous and even earlier planning schemes stemming back 20 or more years."

And limiting these comments now to just the heritage provisions of the Interim Scheme, it remains of great concern to us when the Interim Scheme was unveiled at the end of 2012, that:

• the list of heritage places scheduled had not been updated since at least 1996 (the State Government and Launceston City Council had shared the considerable expense of engaging an interstate heritage expert to update this list in around 2002. This study identified a great number of additional places, but still nothing has been added as promised);
• the list of Significant Trees had not been updated since 1985, and this list of important and significant trees, has now been deleted altogether;
• the list of heritage precincts that had existed in the previous and even earlier schemes has been deleted and some sort of alternative interim protection has been given to all individual properties within the pre-existing precincts, even those that have no heritage value in their own right. Aspects of precincts that are located within roadways and nature strips etc., such as trees, landscaping, stone gutters and stone retaining walls etc., and previously protected, are currently not protected at all.

New provisions of the state-wide model planning scheme that called for protection of archaeological sites are blank pages in the interim scheme -

• Launceston's burial grounds, some located on converted recreational grounds, both private and publically owned, and on private residential land, are not protected at all;
• Archaeology in Launceston is unprotected by the planning scheme, and in particular where there are sites that are highly regarded as potentially yielding very important archaeological 'finds' as they have already been identified as having had buildings from the 1826 and 1835 surveys of Launceston, but are disregarded.

The above content has to be of concern as it is an embarrassment compared to that contained in the Hobart Council’s Interim Planning Scheme.

It is time to now speak to the candidates particularly those Councillors who continue to undermine the city’s core strength and devalue our environment.

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IDEA #1

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