The battle to save Urrbrae gatehouse lodge

PROFESSOR WARREN JONES AO

It was not until early this year that the public became fully aware of the threat to the state heritage-listed gatehouse lodge at Urrbrae posed by the State Government’s decision to massively and unnecessarily widen the Cross and Fullarton roads intersection. The 130-year-old gatehouse was simply collateral damage in the government’s plans to appropriate land bequeathed to the University of Adelaide by pastoralist Peter Waite and now forming part of the Waite Arboretum.

The people of South Australia have delivered a resounding verdict, forcing the government to change both the plan and, hopefully, its thinking about treating our heritage with disdain.

The campaign to save and relocate the gatehouse was met with misinformation and stubbornness from the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Corey Wingard. He maintained that 70 trees would have to be sacrificed if the gatehouse were to be was relocated. This was incorrect. The only trees at risk are those in the way of the intersection widening. Then, in attempting to abrogate responsibility for the fate of the gatehouse, Minister Wingard moved to broker financial arrangements with the university, which were cynical and unworkable. His offer of $2 million from a heritage fund, thereby depriving other worthwhile projects of support, was a blatant attempt to wedge the university if it, quite reasonably, refused the offer.

The government also offered $2 million in land acquisition compensation for use in relocation, being well aware that a university statute prevented the use of this money for anything other than teaching and research. And, in a final threatening move, the government signalled its intent to apply to the State Commission Assessment Panel (SCAP) for permission to demolish the gatehouse if the university failed to take steps to move it.

By the time the government capitulated and agreed to save the gatehouse, the campaign had recruited 18,000 signatures on an on-line petition, 8,000 on a paper petition, and more than 1,000 people at the second of two community rallies.

The government has offered to avoid demolition by ‘deconstructing and reconstructing’ the gatehouse. However, the preferred safer and cheaper alternative would have been to relocate the whole building.

It is likely that the government will wish to expedite the gatehouse deconstruction (dismantling) to allow the intersection project to meet its deadlines. The risk, then, is that the materials will lie fallow, and there will be no imperative or urgency to efficiently and safely relocate and reconstruct this precious building.

Concerned community and heritage advocates will monitor these developments closely. It is vital that the gatehouse is reconstructed accurately, creating like for like, using the original materials and retaining its State Heritage status. Anything less will be met with a new and vigorous public campaign.

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