Peter Farago
AS WRECKING balls close in on two buildings with historic pasts, it’s an appropriate time to question whether heritage buildings have useby dates.
According to some, it’s never.
But at Geelong Hospital heavy machinery moved in to send the walls of the Ryrie Centre crashing to earth last week.
As work continues on this site, the value of another farless conspicuous property has amplified the debate about how far we should go to protect heritage values in Geelong.
At Geelong Hospital, the Ryrie Centre was one of the longestremaining buildings on the hospital site.
The modern Patricia Heath Wing dwarfed this early hospital building in the 1980s when it was considered worthy of heritage protection.
But the metal cladding on the eastern facade of the sevenstorey Heath Wing always reflected the opinion of hospital administrators on the future of the Ryrie Centre: it had to go.
Now it’s been razed to make way for a new accident and emergency centre – an important development on the hospital site.
Only columns lining a walkway at the rear of the building and its cornerstone will be preserved as the remainder of the building becomes rubble.
The building’s demise has sparked calls of lament for its historic value and put into question Geelong’s efforts to protect its history.
But there are equally significant questions about the true heritage value of some buildings.
Looking at the Ryrie Centre in recent weeks revealed decades of building additions that essentially diluted the structure’s 1920s facade, which many wanted protected.
It’s a similar question that hangs over a small home at Point Lonsdale that’s belatedly hit the headlines.
Borough of Queenscliffe has given new owners permission to demolish the rundown weatherboard house that was a holiday house for Australia’s second Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin, in the early 1900s.
That connection should warrant heritage considerations but Deakin owned the house for eight years from 1903 before moving to another home, Ballara, down the street.
He served three separate terms as PM while owning the first house.
Ballara is heritagelisted and still owned by Deakin’s family – while years of neglect have turned the earlier home into a decaying ghost house.
But should a home that appears derelict and has arguably fleeting historic value be protected forever?
While it’s important to protect Geelong’s heritage, there’s a point where protection moves from posterity to problems.
Is a building that appears beyond repair worth keeping?
In the case of Geelong Hospital, State Government is ripping down Ryrie Centre to provide a better acute health service for the region.
The region has been crying out for an improved accident and emergency service and this development is set to provide it – even if, as Member for Geelong Ian Trezise bemoaned in a press statement this week – it is a “concrete monstrosity”.
In the question of the Ryrie Centre, should a historic building be protected at the cost of a better health service?
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