Elsie Lange
Hume council will write to the state government and request a gift: the remaining 3.269 hectares of land located at Jacksons Hill in Sunbury.
The land is Lot C at the precinct, which includes the heritage listed Female Refractory Ward known as Building 22, for the use of Sunbury’s artistic community.
At a meeting on Monday, September 26, council voted to write to the Planning Minister Lizzie Blandthorn to transfer the site to council for free or in a long-term peppercorn lease.
Jacksons Creek Ward councillor Jarrod Bell said he did not think it was reasonable for Hume ratepayers to foot the bill for the site, as many in Sunbury already considered it a community asset.
“This building is really only suited to be a community space,” Cr Bell said.
“It is uniquely placed to fill a desperate need, and to divert funding that could be used to get it up and to scratch for a government to government purchase does not make sense to me, especially if the alternative is to simply let it continue to rot.”
Council’s current capital works program has a total of $6 million to support upgrade works at Jacksons Hill, which includes $3 million from the state government.
In 2020, the former Planning Minister Richard Wynne wrote to council to seek its interest in purchasing the land, which was the only lot not transferred in principle to council by the government in 2018.
Since then, “cultural heritage issues” are said to have impacted the transfer of the agreed lots, and therefore, the arts community.
Fellow Jacksons Creek Ward councillor Trevor Dance said the “saga” had been going on for more than a decade and that there had been little progress since the government first agreed to the land transfer four years ago.
“I think the community needs to send a loud message out there that we want the land transferred so we can use the $3 million that’s been given to us from the government… and the additional $3 in the council budget,” Cr Dance said.
He also added it was disappointing to see the historical building “go to rot”.
“It’s an injustice to see what’s happening there… Let’s hope we get this, we add to it, we hope that the land is transferred to us quickly,” he said.
