State Budget 2018: $60m for Aboriginal Art and Cultures Gallery on site of old RAH
PLANS to build a world-leading Aboriginal art gallery on the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site will receive a $60 million cash injection from Tuesday’s State Budget, The Advertiser can reveal.
- Aboriginal Art and Culture Gallery, hotel for old RAH site
- Included in plan for old RAH is start-up business, innovation hub …
- … and $60 million culinary school
PLANS to build a world-leading Aboriginal art gallery on the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site will receive a $60 million cash injection from Tuesday’s State Budget, The Advertiser can reveal.
The spending is part of a $400 million-plus commitment to redeveloping the site, including continuing demolition work started by the former government and rolling out Premier Steven Marshall’s election pledges for new economic and cultural activity.
Mr Marshall went to the election promising a multistage overhaul of the old RAH, featuring a new innovation hub and Aboriginal art gallery.
It also includes an International School of Culinary Excellence, Hospitality and Tourism to replace Regency Park’s Le Cordon Bleu.
Mr Marshall revealed direct Budget funding for the Aboriginal art gallery would include $60 million set aside for construction and $200,000 for a study to define the project’s scope and overall vision in consultation with communities, the SA Museum and Art Gallery.
Before the election, Mr Marshall indicated the gallery could start construction before 2022.
It’s expected further money would have to be released in future Budgets, given the gallery’s completion would likely occur after the four years covered in Tuesday’s books.
The State Budget will also include $43.9 million to refit and repurpose seven buildings at the “Lot Fourteen” innovation hub, which includes heritage buildings on North Tce.
Modelled on a similar program in Queensland, the hub will be overseen by a chief entrepreneur and a not-for-profit board of members drawn mostly from the private sector.
Start-up entrepreneurs will be offered workshops on developing business models and seeking finance, as well as access to international business people and successful SA expatriates.
The International School of Culinary Excellence, Hospitality and Tourism will have $30 million earmarked between 2020 and 2022 to start construction at the old RAH site.
Mr Marshall said government agencies and training providers would collaborate on a “full scoping study for the facilities required”, to deliver the training services revamp.
He said the new Government’s focus for the old RAH was creating jobs and ensuring a key piece of real estate in the CBD heart was not left to languish like the Le Cornu site.
“The site presents a truly unique opportunity to develop a precinct which drives economic growth, brings people back into the East End of the city, and creates more jobs for South Australians for decades to come,” Mr Marshall said.
“It will also be a national focal point for Aboriginal art and cultures as well as new spaces for major exhibitions, and the opportunity to unlock the hidden treasures of SA’s cultural institutions.”
Current storage facilities are limited, meaning only 5 per cent of artefacts are on display. Former premier Jay Weatherill at the 2014 election pledged the old RAH would be the site of a new CBD school, which was later shifted to another plot of nearby land.
At the time, Mr Marshall said parts of the old RAH could be retained as a functioning medical facility.
In September last year, Mr Weatherill announced plans for the Government to take charge of development on the site after a $1 billion agreement for a private overhaul collapsed.
That proposal had included an expansion of the Botanic Gardens site as well as the possibility for a contemporary art gallery, private hotel and education facilities with nearby universities.