By NOEL MURPHY
GEELONG might be building a new $40 million heritage centre but its only museum of local collections faces losing its home.
Geelong Cement Retirees Museum, housed in an 1855 heritage-listed former orphanage on Fyansford’s McCurdy Rd, has fallen into disrepair without a source of funding for repairs.
ICD Property recently bought the building housing the museum’s 28 rooms of historic Geelong Cement artefacts and machinery, along with other smaller collections from across the city.
The building was part of a failed $300 million Fyansford Green proposed residential development, which ICD hopes to resurrect.
An ICD engineer’s inspection had declared the building unfit for habitation, museum spokesman Graeme Palmer told the Independent.
“It has cement work machines but also a lot of private collections like the Fyansford Primary School from when Kennett closed down all the little schools. There are some things from Swanston St when that was closed down.
“It’s been a repository for people with nowhere else to go. They all thought they’d be able to stay there forever but every room is chock-a-block full now. We’re dreading so much when old people die and grandkids don’t know what to do with their things and take them to the tip.”
Mr Palmer said City Hall had been supportive and was in talks with the new owners to “see if we can work out something”.
“At this stage there’s no timeline or deadline to go.”
The former orphanage dates to 1855, with extensions built in 1857 and 1865. Heritage Victoria documents say the complex illustrates the extent of poverty and child destitution in Victoria during the 19th Century and government and other attempts to tackle the problem.
Geelong Cement, originally Australian Portland Cement Company, bought the site in 1889. It was the first cement works in Australia on the Moorabool River flats below.
ICD Property did not return calls by the Independent.
