By NOEL MURPHY
STATE Government has hedged its bets against any commitment to an early resolution of heritage and safety problems at Moolap’s disused Cheetham saltworks, earmarked for a $4 billion waterfront suburb.
The Independent revealed last month that the Portarlington Rd land had deterioriated into an unsecured, dangerous, asbestos and graffiti-riddled heritage site.
The Government subsequently announced “exclusive negotiations” with landowner Ridley Corporation to hasten the redevelopment project but avoided questions about immediate dangers at the site and outstanding heritage issues ignored for the past 20 years.
“All cultural, heritage and environmental issues will be dealt with in negotiations with Ridley and through planning law,” a spokesman for Deputy Premier Peter Ryan told the Independent.
The Independent asked whether the Government could “provide any assurances” its negotiations with Ridley would address the reported public concerns over the site.
“Any development at the site will go through usual planning processes. This will include an environmental effects statement, including an assessment of heritage issues and the approach to managing any issues.
“The EES will provide an opportunity for the public to make submissions.”
Broken fencing allows vandals easy access to the site, littered with glass, timber and metal rubbish, broken concrete, bricks and derelict sheds and buildings whose internal and external have been covered in graffiti.
A tumbledown four-storey building is open to trespassers despite perfunctory efforts to fence it off.
Buildings and worksheds are covered in graffiti, wet with spilled oil and smell strongly of fuel and grease.
Broken gutters, timber studded with nails, shattered plasterboard, exposed rafters, metal pipes, jagged glass in broken window frames, busted light fittings and fixtures contrast with ‘Danger Keep Out’ signs and asbestos warnings.
COMMENT:
Demolition by neglect is a familiar modus operandi by which developers have long avoided responsibilities for heritage protection.
The tumbledown status of Cheetham’s heritage-listed structure shows the failure of heritage laws to actively protect our important buildings. Successive government shave refused to enhance penalties and year after year we continue to watch our heritage disappear.
Perhaps it’s time to take a leaf from Penang’s book, where UNESCO heritage-listed architecture in its world-famous Georgetown is protected by no-nonsense laws.
In short, let your heritage building fall down, burn down or otherwise deterioriate and owners hand over title for their property.
Simple, effective.
