Last ditch bid to save historic school fails to stop bulldozers

An eleventh hour bid to save Alice Springs’ Anzac Hill High School due to heritage concerns has been knocked back, despite a pending review of its historic significance.

An 11th hour bid to save Alice’s Springs’ Anzac Hill High School due to heritage concerns has been knocked back, despite a pending review of its historic significance.

AN ELEVENTH hour bid to save Alice Springs’ Anzac Hill High School due to heritage concerns has been knocked back, despite a pending review of its historic significance.

Earlier this month, Heritage Council member Alex Nelson successfully applied for a review of the council’s finding that the school was “not of heritage significance” in a bid to save it from being demolished to make way for the planned National Indigenous Art Gallery.

Last week Mr Nelson sought emergency orders in the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal to halt the demolition until his appeal is heard on Friday.

But despite noting Mr Nelson’s challenge would arguably succeed and that the bulldozers were due to roll in last Monday, NTCAT president Richard Bruxner declined to grant the injunction.

Mr Bruxner said Mr Nelson’s decision to prioritise reporting the matter to the Independent Commission Against Corruption over pursuing the review with NTCAT meant it would not be fair to the NT Government to call a halt to the works.

Mr Bruxner said the government was likely to “incur significant financial exposure” if the demolition did not proceed as scheduled and Mr Nelson had refused to agree to cover its losses if his challenge was ultimately unsuccessful.

“I note that the ICAC investigation appears to have involved the obtaining of an independent expert assessment (which, I stress, I have not seen) to the effect that the school does have heritage significance,” he said.

“Despite the view just expressed, I was not satisfied that an order should be made preventing the continuation of demolition works at the school pending the outcome of these proceedings.

“I reached that conclusion conscious of the fact that refusal of an injunction would likely mean that the principal focus of the proceeding – the school – ceases to exist.”

The ICAC investigation found no evidence of “improper conduct” in the heritage assessment process.