Ralph Branding, Mermaid Waters.
Your Mullumbimby Hospital article generated the following recollections.
I am a retired architect, town planner and heritage adviser now living on the Gold Coast but most of my professional career was spent in New South Wales where I was involved in two similar issues involving land or structures developed by Community Trusts and under threat of demolition, land sale and re-development.
The first related to land in Lane Cove municipality in Sydney, known then and still as Newlands Park. Like the Mullumbimby land it was created and built by a community trust set up in the early part of the last century. It was around this time that such organizations turned their thoughts and activities away from the building of Schools of Art, libraries and other educational assets so popular in the last half of the 19th century to the broader issues of public open space being put forward by the then new profession of town planning, often associating them with public health building proposals.
One of the five criteria for consideration of heritage listing of such European built environment in New South Wales was the object’s social history. In the case of Newlands Park this proved to be particularly rich, as many of the people involved in the design, fund raising, physical creation and management of the park went on to careers in all levels of politics, business and the professions. I suspect that a similar situation at regional level would be found to be the case here. In any case no sale or demolition should be allowed until this aspect of the site is properly examined. I suggest that both the NSW Heritage Council and NSW Office of Environment and Heritage and the minister be consulted to secure some temporary protection for the land until the matter has been properly examined.
The second example involved my direct participation. During a brief transit through the NSW Parliament (Member for Camden 1981-1984) I was approached to help save the Bowral Cottage Hospital, a tiny building apparently built by a trust similar to the Mullumbimby example. It had passed to the Bowral Hospital Board with the building of the new hospital and been use as storerooms ever since. After consulting with and receiving the enthusiastic support of the local dentists I was able to secure funding for an internal conversion, obtain two surplus sets of dental surgery equipment from NSW Government stores and the agreement of the hospital board to take over the management of the resulting community dental clinic. The local members here will no doubt have access to the appropriate sources of departmental and ministerial advice and help for the proposed adaptive re-use of the former hospital and its return to the community.
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