Report slams Geelong council’s push to save 164-year-old Waurn Ponds heritage homestead
Geelong council will push ahead with investigating permanent heritage protection of a crumbling 164-year-old Waurn Ponds homestead, despite a damning report warning much of the property is “beyond repair and dangerous”.
GEELONG council will push ahead with investigating permanent heritage protection of a crumbling 164-year-old Waurn Ponds homestead, despite a damning report warning much of the property is “beyond repair and dangerous”.
Councillors on Thursday unanimously voted to call on the Planning Minister to appoint an independent panel to consider submissions received by the city in response to the permanent heritage overlay it had drawn up to protect the 1857-built Claremont Homestead on Kinsmead St.
The councillors voted for the move with little discussion, with Cr Bruce Harwood suggesting it was best for the council group to “keep our powder dry” until it received independent advice.
The decision to push ahead with exploring permanent heritage protection of the site came despite a critical structural engineering report handed to the city in May describing the deteriorating property as “more hovel than mansion” and “a risk to life”.
“The only purpose of keeping this building would be to act as education-tool, to show engineers, architects, builders, building surveyors, and others what terrible-masonry looks like, and how poor construction practices lead to long-term unfixable defects,” the report noted.
“We understand that our structural assessment is at odds with the desire to retain Claremont Homestead in its original condition. However, we believe occupant health and safety takes precedence over attempting to maintain elements of buildings that are clearly beyond-repair and dangerous.”
An independent panel appointed by the Planning Minister would be called to consider 36 submissions lodged with the city regarding its protection plans for the homestead – including 32 supporting statements and three objections submitted by site owners.
A city report noted “the preparation of the Heritage Review and the Statement of Significance was made without the benefit of a close-up external view and inspection of the integrity of the inside of the house”.
The report also argued “a place may be quite run-down but still be substantially intact and retain its heritage values”.
— HARRISON TIPPET
‘More hovel than mansion’: council rescue mission slammed
A damning report has warned against a Geelong council push to place permanent heritage protection on a crumbling 164-year-old Waurn Ponds homestead, describing it as “more hovel than mansion”.
But, despite the report’s advice warning the dilapidated Claremont Homestead on Kinsmead St is “beyond repair and dangerous”, the council is poised to push ahead with a process exploring permanent protections of the building.
Councillors will on Tuesday vote on a recommendation to call on the Planning Minister to appoint an independent panel to consider the 36 submissions received in response to the permanent heritage overlay it had drawn up to protect the 1857-built homestead from a developer’s wrecking ball.
The recommendation to appoint the panel – which would advise the city on how it should progress with its heritage protection of the site – came despite a critical structural engineering report handed to the city in May.
The report described the house as a “risk to life”, and warned much of it needed to be demolished.
“The house has solid single-brick external walls and internal walls, made of 110mm thick single-skin bricks, that are physically deteriorating and honestly, are the worst-quality bricks this engineer has seen in his 20 years in the construction industry,” the report warned.
“I don’t think there would be a builder alive who would put their insurance on the line to say that any of the masonry in this building are able to be kept.
“The two most externally obvious visual elements, the walls and roof, won’t survive as they are, and have no hope of remaining as original elements.
“The only purpose of keeping this building would be to act as education tool, to show engineers, architects, builders, building surveyors, and others what terrible-masonry looks like, and how poor construction practices lead to long-term unfixable defects.
“We understand that our structural assessment is at odds with the desire to retain Claremont Homestead in its original condition.
“However, we believe occupant health and safety takes precedence over attempting to maintain elements of buildings that are clearly beyond-repair and dangerous.”
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Of the 36 submissions responding to the city’s received by council in response to its permanent heritage overlay, 32 supported the move while three – all submitted by site owners – objected to it.
A city report noted “the preparation of the Heritage Review and the Statement of Significance was made without the benefit of a close-up external view and inspection of the integrity of the inside of the house”.
The report also argued “a place may be quite run-down but still be substantially intact and retain its heritage values”.
A Waurn Ponds family recently purchased the 6156sq m property for more than $2 million, with family member Nicole Lock outlining their plans for the site.
“Our hope is to build a beautiful family home up the top next to the park and my sister is involved in this project and she’s building her dream home on another part of the land and then we’re subdividing into the same sized house blocks that are already in the neighbourhood,” Ms Lock said.
“Initially we thought we could restore the homestead and sell it off as a restored house or subdivide and sell it to somebody that would like to restore it. But basically 90 per cent of it was condemned. It’s going to take quite a lot of money to bring it back to be a replica.
“Whatever we will have to do, we will make the most out of what we can. Our main goal was to build our own family home as we wanted that spot.”
Claremont occupies a 6156sq m property at 12-16 Kinsmead St, the remnants of a 100ha farm south of Geelong owned by four generations of the Baum family.
Gottfried Baum purchased Claremont in 1894. Fifth-generation grandchildren also spent formative years on the farm.
The homestead’s last occupant, Kenneth Baum, died in 2019, aged 90, months after Geelong’s council renamed a neighbouring reserve Baum Park.
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