By Julie Power
Built in 1881, the grand Victoria Theatre in Newcastle’s city centre flourished in the era of silent pictures and the heights of vaudeville, featuring a galaxy of stars from trick cyclists and magicians to patterologists – jokesters who traded in gags and puns.
The venue narrowly dodged death by demolition a decade ago when Century Management, the owners of the Enmore Theatre and other venues across Sydney, purchased the building with a $12 million plan to restore it.
Now a $1 million heritage grant from the NSW government announced on Tuesday will bring the project to transform the old theatre into the equivalent of the Enmore in Newy, as the old industrial town is affectionately known, a little closer.
The Victoria Theatre in Newcastle, built in 1881, has been awarded a $1 million heritage grant.Credit: SC Studio
It is one of two Newcastle projects that have received a $1 million “activating state heritage” grant to revitalise the city’s centre and attract visitors, the largest grants made under the NSW program.
The second $1 million grant, to the Schwartz Family Company, will turn the old GPO by Walter Liberty Vernon into Australia’s first Aboriginal medical museum and a community hub.
The projects were among 140 grant recipients awarded a total of $8.65 million in the 2025-2027 round, announced by the NSW Minister for Heritage Penny Sharpe to celebrate, preserve and revive historical projects and sites across the state. These range from changes to preserve culturally sensitive parts of Birubi Point Aboriginal Place to the conservation of the Bushranger Hotel in Goulburn.
Up 44 per cent on the 2023-2025 round of grants, the increase coincides with consultation on the government’s draft heritage strategy, open for feedback until July 13. It has heard maintaining heritage is a “black hole” of time, money and bureaucratic battles.
Sharpe said the record investment highlighted the government’s commitment. “Our many and diverse heritage places tell the stories of NSW. These heritage sites will also be a drawcard for visitors and beacons for local communities into the future.”
Some of the grants will fund urgent repairs to historic homes and properties including two of the state’s earliest surviving buildings: the 1795 brick cottage known as the Macquarie Arms Inn, and its 1815 slab barn. Covered in invasive creepers, they need urgent stabilisation to prevent collapse.
The second $1 million grant will turn Newcastle’s historic post office into Australia’s first Aboriginal medical museum and a community hub.Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
Among funds given to councils, the City of Ryde received $185,000 for the conservation of Addington House, an early colonial cottage; Lane Cove Council received $23,000 for repairs to the historic Carisbrook House; while Liverpool City Council received $35,000 to repair Rosebank Cottage.
North Sydney Council received $156,000 to replace the roof of Don Bank House, now a museum.
Built in 1853, it is one of the city’s oldest timber cottages. Standing in the lush garden surrounded by high-rise commercial blocks, North Sydney Mayor Zoë Baker said over time it had become an oasis.
“What it does provide those who work within the North Sydney CBD is a place of calm and rest from the hard lines of the city,” she said. The home was important because it was a surviving relic of the first colonial settlement on the north side of the harbour and had been built from materials nearby.
North Sydney Mayor Zoe Baker at Don Bank House Museum, which will receive a grant to replace the roof. Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
For Baker, there is a personal connection too. Her mother, Carole Baker, had been passionate about heritage and open spaces, and had campaigned to save Don Bank from being razed in the 1970s. She then became the first female mayor of North Sydney Council in 1979.
Daniel Ballantyne, the manager of the Victoria Theatre Project, who is employed by the non-profit The Next Century Trust, said the beauty of restoring threatened heritage theatres was that they were often ideally located next to existing infrastructure.
Ballantyne, who previously managed the city’s cultural precinct, said the population of Newcastle had risen 20 per cent over the past two decades yet not a single new theatre had opened in that time.
There is unmet demand for theatre, bands and comedy performances, and spaces for young artists. “We are absolutely convinced there is a viable business there,” Ballantyne said.
A development application has been approved by the City of Newcastle.
He said some of the grant would be used to complete the restoration of the Victorian-era facade with columns, flourishes and “lots and lots of details”.
It would use programmable coloured LED lighting – in the same way as the Enmore used this lighting in its interior – to illuminate the architectural detailing and tell its story.
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clarification
An earlier version of this story had an incorrect date for when Don Bank House was built.