Negotiations back on the table as conflicting community groups fight for Donovans stone hut

A council decision on the future of a historic South East building was lawful – but it may not have been the best decision, a review has found.

The fight for a historic South East building is “back to square one” with one of two conflicting community groups saying it would be “totally impractical” to share.

A decision made on the future of the Donovans stone hut was lawful but it may not have been the best option available to the District Council of Grant, a review has found.

Council granted the lease to the boat club on June 15 with the terms to be negotiated by the chief executive.

Donovans stone hut. Picture: Google

The next day, DRAC lodged a formal complaint requesting a section 270 review under the Local Government Act.

That review was undertaken by Norman Waterhouse Lawyers with the final 77-page report including a 85-signature petition in support of DRAC presented at Monday night’s meeting.

While the decision was lawful, Felice D’Agostino found coming to an arrangement with both parties may have been the better option.

“It wasn’t clear to me, based on the information that I had, there been an extensive exploration of the possibility of both of these organisations being accommodated,” she said during the meeting.

“If there was a possibility that a compromise reached, it would be worthwhile to explore that, it might be that’s not possible and then the council will need to decide to grant a lease to one organisation over the other.”

Ms D’Agostino recommended council direct the chief executive to discuss the option joint occupancy and report back to council with the outcome.

DRAC president Steven Gillett said the group were willing to share the building.

“I’m sick of fight about it,” Mr Gillett said.

“I spoke to them a few days ago and they’re not so interested in (sharing) so I suppose we’re back to square one again, where we were 12 months ago.”

Since the decision was made, council has committed to building a community hall in the hamlet at a cost of around $100,000 according to Cr Gill Clayfield.

The slab is expected to be poured within the next 28 days and Mr Gillett said if he had to chose one, the new facility would better cater for its 40 members.

“When we first launched the 270, we had nowhere to go,” he said.

“There was no talk of a community hall being built at that time.”

DRAC secretary Sheryl Teigesser said the hut was built by the Donovans community and the group wanted access to both – to host fishing competitions, sausage sizzles and other fundraising events from the hut and lager community events including exercise and craft activities at the hall.

“The stone hut is a part of Donovans’ heritage so to have that back is very important to the community,” she said.

“We appreciate the community hall, don’t get me wrong, because it will be awesome and we can hold our Christmas lunches there, we can have the community come together.

“The stone hut is very important as equally as is the community hub.”

She also raised concerns about the boat club having no Donovans members, with two-thirds coming from Victoria.

The boat club was not represented at the meeting with a letter from president Allan Wilkinson and secretary and treasurer Bruce Mackereth tabled in response to the preliminary report.

It requested council uphold the original decision and disagreed with the recommendation saying issues regarding ownership of equipment, compensation for works done, co-ordination of use and maintenance may not be able to be resolved between the parties.

“We do not agree with your opinion as it is totally impractical to have joint occupancy rights,” the letter read.

“Should your recommendation be put to council and adopted by it we would reluctantly agree to discussions with the CEO.”

Councillors Barry Kuhl and Shirley Little moved to uphold the original decision, but the majority voted in favour of the report’s recommendation.

A 60 day period was set for chief executive Darryl Whicker to negotiate a resolution or refer the matter back to council.