Last Friday Minister for the Hunter and Member for Newcastle Jodi McKay announced that the NSW Heritage Council had recommended four more iconic Newcastle buildings to be listed as a Precinct on the NSW State Heritage Register and $684,000 in funding to preserve the heritage values of nine sites across Newcastle.
The Minister for Planning endorsed the NSW Heritage Council recommendation that significant heritage sites near the Newcastle Railway Station should be Heritage listed. They include the Customs House, the Convict Lumberyard, Coutts Sailors Home and Enterprise Park and all will all be placed on the NSW State Heritage Register as a heritage Precinct.
Funding has been allocated under the NSW Heritage Grants program for works to preserve and promote nine significant heritage sites within Newcastle.
Newcastle Projects to be funded under the NSW Heritage Grants 2011-2013 program include:
– $150,000 heritage grant to Cedtoy Pty Ltd to carry out urgent conservation work to the State Heritage Register listed former T&G Mutual Life Assurance Building in Newcastle;
– $150,000 heritage grant to Newcastle City Council to re-instate ten conserved monuments to their original positions in Cathedral Park and Cemetery at The Hill and carry out further conservation works to surviving monuments;
– $100,000 heritage grant to Christ Church Cathedral to carry out works to remediate the masonry by removing salts and re-pointing the brickwork of Christ Church Cathedral;
– $100,000 heritage grant to Strata Plan No 19837 to undertake conservation works to the roof structure and cladding of the prominent 1937 Art Deco landmark Segenhoe on The Hill;
– $50,000 heritage grant to the Grand Hotel Newcastle to reinstate the two-storey verandahs of the Grand Hotel in Church Street, Newcastle, based on historical
photographs;
– $50,000 heritage grant to St Johns Anglican Church Newcastle to carry out works to the vaulted timber ceiling of the State Heritage Register-listed 1860 St John’s Anglican Church at Cooks Hill designed by Edmund Blacket;
– $50,000 heritage grant to carry out conservation works to the 1861 State Heritage Register-listed former Salvation Army Hospital, now known as The Ridge in Merewether;
– $17,000 heritage grant to the Fort Scratchley Heritage Historical Society to continue the interpretation of the State Heritage Register-listed Fort Scratchley complex in Newcastle;
– $17,000 heritage grant to Newcastle City Council to interpret the City of Newcastle through a Loop Walk featuring heritage sites through story, sculpture and digital projections.
We sincerely thank the Minister for her ongoing support for heritage in Newcastle, and for her championing of other significant matters such as:
– restoration of public access to Nobbys Headland
– the heritage listing of Shepherds Hill military fortification;
– the heritage listing of the James Fletcher Hospital site;
– work to restore access to the historic Bogey Hole;
– funding for the Newcastle Historic Reserve Trust for restoration works at the Lock-up;
– handover to the community of the 1877 Carrington Pumphouse from Newcastle Port Corporation
And we also congratulate the Newcastle Family History Society for their new book on the Christ Church Cathedral Baptisms, Marriages and Burials. This project has taken years of work, and many hours of transcription from the Cathedral registers held in the University of Newcastle’s Archives. We applaud the efforts of Margaret Roulston and Brian Engel for their diligent work.
