By Megan Gorrey
Recalcitrant youth on the wrong side of the law in the 1970s would scale the concrete balconies of the hulking remand centre in inner-city Glebe in a desperate bid to escape the building and their brush with justice.
But now, a new generation of intruders is flouting the law and frustrating residents by flocking to get into the abandoned Bidura Children’s Court and Metropolitan Remand Centre as it awaits its date with a bulldozer to make way for a $32 million residential redevelopment.
The building’s concrete walls are covered in graffiti and its glass windows and doors have been shattered. Inside, office chairs, desks, partitions, drawers and bookshelves have been trashed.Credit: Edwina Pickles
Chris Newton, who lives opposite the complex, is among residents who have watched the complex become a magnet for trespassers and vandals since the state government moved out in 2017.
“It’s a popular adventure site. I’ve been here 40 years, so I remember when it was the remand centre, and the kids were trying their hardest to get out of it; now they’re trying their hardest to get into it.
“They jump off the roof onto the balconies, which is what the kids did in the ’70s to escape the remand centre,” Newton said.
A City of Sydney council planning panel last year approved developer Vision Land Glebe’s proposal to demolish the deserted court building, restore the adjoining state heritage-listed Victorian villa, Bidura House, facing Glebe Point Road, and construct a seven-storey unit block and seven terraces.
The decision ended a protracted battle between the developers, locals, the City of Sydney council and architects, who had fought a rearguard battle to save the brutalist court from the wrecking ball.
Robert Hannon said residents were frustrated that Bidura House and the complex had been left to deteriorate, triggering concerns about fire safety and “hordes of people rolling through the place”.
“One Saturday, there were about 45 people on the roof, mostly men in their 20s and 30s, and they were throwing furniture four or five storeys down.
“[The government] walked out and left everything. There are storerooms that are full of paint and chemicals and tools. I’m amazed the whole thing hasn’t gone up in flames.”
The Glebe Society’s planning subcommittee president, Ian Stephenson, said residents were frustrated that the developer had not started conservation works on the run-down Bidura House that were a condition of the project’s approval.
“The very protracted [development application] process has been demolition by neglect.”
Vision Land Glebe did not respond to requests for comment.
A City of Sydney spokeswoman said the council received more than 40 complaints about the site in the past five years, mostly about dumped rubbish, water leaks, vandalism, rodents and trespassers.
‘You’re talking about a housing shortage, and it’s all just sitting there. It’s just a total waste.’
Local Chris Newton
The spokeswoman said council officers who recently inspected the empty building had determined a fire safety order should be issued to the site’s owner because it was in an unsafe condition.
“It is vacant and not properly secured to prevent unauthorised access. This means people could possibly enter and occupy the building, where they could potentially be at risk,” the council said.
The council was “currently taking enforcement action to address this”. However, it was waiting on the developer’s representations before it issued the fire safety order.
The spokeswoman said Vision Land Glebe’s approval for the project had given it a two-year period within which it had to execute and register a planning agreement before starting work.
That period expires next August. The developer has advised the council that it plans to begin the proposed conservation works on Bidura House in July.
Police said they had received 70 complaints about trespassers inside the complex this year.
A NSW Police spokeswoman said officers had charged two people with trespassing, issued two fines, given 23 move-along directions and issued 17 warnings.
Newton and Hannon think the court building should have been repurposed for homes.
An artist’s impression of an apartment and terrace house complex, designed by DKO, that Vision Land Glebe plans to build.
Newton said: “The [developer] said they can’t find a builder. We would like something to happen. You could turn all the cells into little rooms, [it’s] better than sleeping under the arches at Wentworth Park.
“You’re talking about a housing shortage, and it’s all just sitting there. It’s just a total waste.”
Architect Philip Thalis, a former City of Sydney councillor, said the government should have retained the court for social housing or sold it with an approved development application.
“I do think Glebe needs more houses, but it would have been good if they could have built [apartments] on top of the court building and adapted it, like the Sirius building.
“That would have been a better outcome. It should have been a win-win. It’s a lost opportunity.”
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