How ironic that the
two rail heritage buildings depicted in Saturday’s Herald (2/8) as being “eyed
off by developers” are in fact guaranteed to remain in public ownership under
the Redfern-Waterloo Authority’s concept plan for the North
Eveleigh site. In respect to these two buildings, the Government
through Arts NSW has invested more than $40 million in refurbishing the
CarriageWorks as a performing arts space and is also currently investing $3
million through the RWA in refurbishing the Blacksmith’s Workshop as a community
market space.
This example
illustrates some of the inaccurate commentary about rail heritage that is
currently occurring. The Herald’s article, for example, states that twenty
heritage buildings are to be demolished at North
Eveleigh. The truth is that all heritage buildings and structures
listed in the State Environmental Planning Policy (Major Projects) are to be
retained under the RWA’s proposed concept plan. This amounts to 52,730 m2 of
heritage floor space at North Eveleigh or about
29% of the total gross floor area for the whole site.
Indeed, the RWA’s
Built Environment Plan for the former Eveleigh rail precinct promotes the
retention of about 6.7 hectares of total site area for rail heritage buildings,
The Government has amply demonstrated its credentials by investing very
significant amounts of money in preserving important elements of our rail
history at North Eveleigh and the Australian Technology Park.
In Monday’s Herald, a
former rail employee also criticises the RWA for requiring a successful private
business operating at the ATP, with an annual turnover of up to $1.2 million, to
enter into a lease and pay a reasonable amount of rent. This commercial issue
is being misrepresented as a heritage issue.
The truth is that the
private business has not paid any rent for 18 years and has had free use during
this time of the ATP’s heritage machinery and equipment.
This is not a tenable
situation in the longer term and the ATP has quite rightly asked the private
business to enter into a lease. Should the current business be required to
vacate, the ATP will keep the heritage equipment in place and establish an
alternative blacksmithing operation sympathetic to the history of the
site.
Yours
sincerely
Robert
Domm
Chief Executive Officer,
Redfern-Waterloo Authority
Managing
Director, Australian Technology Park