Sunbury residents are being urged to sign a petition calling on the state government to reacquire the town’s decommissioned university site at Jacksons Hill.
The Sunbury Asylum Alliance, which hopes to turn the former Victoria University (VU) site into a thriving community hub with space for jobs training, youth programs and artists, has joined the Sunbury Community Progress Association to urge the government to stop the land being sold off for housing.
Residential development has been among the possibilities floated for the site, which was the historic home of Sunbury’s 19th century asylum for people deemed to be mentally impaired.
The land and buildings were handed over to VU in the 1990s. The university closed its Sunbury campus in 2009.
Parts of the site are being used by community groups including radio station 3NRG and Boilerhouse Theatre Company.
Alliance spokeswoman Alison Cunningham said dozens of people had already requested copies of the petition.
‘‘We want it back in the state’s hands so it can be preserved for community use,” she said. “If they sell it, it could be lost forever. Public pressure is the only way it’s going to end up back in public hands.’’
Opposition leader Matthew Guy, who visited the site on Friday, said if it was not kept as an education facility, the community should be allowed to decide its future use.
Western Metropolitan Liberal MP Bernie Finn has warned state Planning Minister Richard Wynne against changing planning permits or zones for the site.
Earlier this month, Mr Finn told Parliament the former asylum and surrounding land should not be allowed to be carved up.
‘‘One idea the community does not support is the prospect of selling the land for housing and losing the unique opportunity this site offers,’’ he said.
VU marketing and external relations executive director Rob Brown said the university was working with Hume council to determine a use for the site to ‘‘enable a tertiary presence to be retained in Sunbury’’.
A spokeswoman for Mr Wynne did not respond by deadline.
The alliance hopes to submit thousands of signatures to the Parliament by the end of April.
Details: email scpa0315@gmail.com
