Navigation
Log in


Forgot your password?
 
You are here: Home / UrbanGrowth, SMDA & RWA Plans & Activities / Built Environment Plan Phase 1 - The State Significant Sites / Australian Technology Park / ATP Sale / Eveleigh Locomotive Workshop collection at Australian Technology Park to be sold

Eveleigh Locomotive Workshop collection at Australian Technology Park to be sold

The towering machines clustered in a cavernous workshop in Redfern make up one of the world's best preserved yet still functioning blacksmithing workshops reports Rose Powell in the Sydney Morning Herald of January 9 2015.

Nestled within the 13 hectares of the Australian Technology Park is the Eveleigh Locomotive Workshop, a heritage-protected site for wrought-iron and steel craftsmanship.

But the future of the iconic collection is in doubt as the state government prepares to offload the multi-million dollar park this year.

Wendie McCaffley has managed the workshop and its team of 30 for decades. She said she was deeply concerned it would no longer be managed by the government when the lease expires in 2020.

Advertisement

"The only way of keeping a site as complex as this strong and open to the public is government ownership," Ms McCaffley said.

"They're some of the best steam powered machines of the Victorian era. It's an important historical site that needs to be protected."

The first part of the sale process has already begun: expressions of interest close on January 30.

Ms McCaffley has a licence to continue to operate the workshop for the next six years.

They pay very little rent in exchange for conducting public tours, as well as making and mending heritage-style steel windows and doors.

The ATP site also includes vacant land, commercial spaces and conference facilities.

The preservation considerations for the heritage sites were detailed in a management plan endorsed by the NSW Heritage Council in March 2014.

Aspiring buyers will need to detail how they would manage the heritage sites but a spokeswoman for the NSW Department of Environment and Heritage said while changes to the site would need to be approved by the council, it could not ensure the continued access to the site.

"Access is a matter for the owner and not a requirement of the Heritage Act," she said.

The possibility of losing access has caused consternation among the local community, including Brian Dunnett who worked at the Eveleigh Locomotive Workshop for decades, as his father did before him.

A long-time campaigner for preserving the site for historical tourism, Mr Dunnett said he was "gutted" the public could lose access to the workshop one day.

"The machinery and buildings are important, but we need to talk about the human side of heritage too. What's left behind helps tell the rich story of Eveleigh," Mr Dunnet said.

Urban Growth NSW, a government agency that raised more than $373 million in 2014 by selling off state government properties, is managing the sale. 

A spokeswoman for Urban Growth said the expressions of interest process had been framed to ensure the protection of the heritage sites, and the new owner would be contractually obliged to honour existing leases.

Photos:

Craftsmen: Anthony Potts watches blacksmith Guido Gouverneur. Photo: Dominic Lorrimer

Gouverneur and Antoni Te Wharakaara hard at work. Photo: Dominic Lorrimer

Source: Eveleigh Locomotive Workshop collection at Australian Technology Park to be sold