Tougher penalties to protect NSW’s heritage jewels

NSW’s 50-year-old heritage act will be updated with “real penalties” on owners who allow demolition by neglect, Heritage Minister Penny Sharpe promised on Tuesday.

The limits of the existing act’s powers had been on display, she said, as the state attempted to deal with two heritage-listed properties, Katoomba’s Paragon Café and Goulburn’s Kenmore Hospital.

Compliance officers were doing their best to save these precious places, but were hampered by an old and out-of-date system, Sharpe said. New legislation will be introduced later this year.

Kenmore Hospital Precinct, an early psychiatric hospital in Goulburn, is now largely derelict, and a court matter has been scheduled for mediation in September.

Sharpe’s department has also alleged the owner of the Paragon Café – the old art deco jewel in Katoomba’s crown – has breached an order to maintain the building.

The owner John Landerer said he didn’t believe he was in breach: “We are doing everything to get it properly done.”

Landerer said an error in the payment system – now rectified – had resulted in a security guard not being paid for two weeks around the time locals saw vandals graffiti the building and jump on its roof.

“Many people raised the issue of compliance being out of date, and we have heard that message loud and clear,” Sharpe told a Heritage Symposium at the Mint.

Announcing the state’s first heritage strategy and the bill to be introduced this year, Sharpe promised owners of heritage buildings would get more help.

The system would be simplified so “owners could focus on protection rather than paperwork”, and new ways of funding would be investigated to provide proactive heritage management and not just reactive support.

The changes follow extensive consultations.

The current heritage grants – $8.65 million over a two-year period – were oversubscribed, limited in scope and not open to NSW government agencies.

Heritage did not have to be sacrificed to create new housing, Sharpe said.

The great cities of the world seamlessly combined heritage in vibrant neighbourhoods with homes for all ages and transport links.

For the first time, the state would develop a way of valuing heritage to support evidence-based funding decisions for government-owned heritage.

“The lack of an agreed method for valuing the many benefits heritage provides means its contribution is poorly understood and often undervalued,” says the heritage strategy.

Acknowledging the importance of Aboriginal people’s 40,000 years of history, Sharpe said it was pertinent to remember that the spot where she was speaking on Macquarie Street represented struggle and dispossession.

“This building tells many stories itself. And the cultural heritage of the Gadigal people sits under these floors and surrounds us,” she said.

Recent heritage listings had broadened the definition of heritage beyond buildings and the built environment to include the intangible, such as the Mardi Gras route, and the stories of communities.

This change was reflected in new listings, including the Rocket playground in Moree; Elsie’s refuge for women; Aboriginal mission sites, and tiny houses like the home Glen Murcutt designed for artists Sydney Ball and Lynne Eastaway.

Sharpe said all Australian heritage was based on the foundation of Aboriginal land and history. “That cultural heritage is a gift that we need to better protect, understand, share.”

Opening the symposium, former premier Bob Carr and the chair of the Museums of History NSW, said intangible heritage could also include key judgments like Mabo, made by the High Court – and not just a building that is nationally listed.

David Burdon of the National Trust has recommended that grant funding should extend to smaller maintenance tasks such as a “single slipped slate on a roof” that prevents more expensive rectification later.

“As the Paragon has shown us, waiting until it is too late is always the most expensive option,” he said.

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