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.