Double Dutch: James and Barbara Hancock outside the house set for a National Trust inspection. Picture: Tommy Ritchie 60411
Andrew Mathieson
RESIDENTS are fighting to save a reproduction Dutch-style home at Newcomb from demolition to make way for units, labelling the house an “icon” of the suburb.
Their battle has reached the region’s National Trust branch, which plans to investigate whether the house deserves heritage protection.
Newcomb’s James Hancock, who is leading the fight to save the house, said it had characteristics of typical post-war Dutch architecture, including a steep, sloping roof and a front dormer window.
“You can’t knock down a beautiful house like that,” Mr Hancock said.
“We thought the Dutch people who live in Geelong would want to protect that site.”
Council said the site developer did not need planning permits for demolition because the Glover Street house had no heritage controls.
Mr Hancock said a dozen neighbours had banded together to fight council’s ruling.
Plans for four units were on public exhibition for two weeks in November but council only invited objectors to attend a consultation meeting three days before Christmas.
“What a ridiculous time to give people notice, with people going away on holidays,” he said.
National Trust Geelong and region branch president Jennifer Bantow said a 1996 Bellarine Heritage Study included Newcomb but failed reach amendment stage in council’s planning scheme for creating heritage overlays.
Mrs Bantow said six other properties in Newcomb had been identified as having heritage significance and were recommended for protection.
But she believed the Glover Street house could still have “architectural, historic or particularly social importance to post-war migration to the immediate neighbourhood”.
Mrs Bantow said residents were welcome to research the home to establish why it should be added to the Bellarine Heritage Study list.
“It sounds like these people are really more objecting to the development and probably hoping there is a heritage value on the house,” she said.
The protection bid shocked Victoria’s leading lobby group for developers.
Urban Development Institute of Australia executive director Tony De Domenico said the objections based on the home’s assumed heritage values had “gone too far”.
“What now? Do we preserve the first house in Footscray built by Greeks?” he said.
