About 20 people gathered in Bungendore last Saturday to attend a forum hosted by Palerang’s Heritage Advisory Committee (HAC).
This event was one of four organised by HAC as part of the Canberra and Region Heritage Festival, and followed Friday evening’s launch of the pamphlet on the history of the street names of Bungendore.
First speaker David Scobie (author of the original Bungendore Conservation Planning Study, 1982) began by giving a rundown on the work he has been doing in places like Carcoar and Millthorpe, providing a series of slides to accompany his presentation.
Using examples from elsewhere, he had many suggestions for local projects which Council and the community could explore, especially in relation to the main street focus, which can involve a combination of heritage funding and owner contributions.
David stressed that the last thing most people want is a main street resembling a Westfield Plaza, with nothing to distinguish it from everywhere else, and that we need to give people good reasons to come here (rather than elsewhere), while nurturing the local economy and heritage value of the community.
We discovered that attitudes to verandah posts have changed; they have come back into fashion after being removed in the ‘60s in bid to modernise – then, it was all about trying to look like the city.
The issue of swales versus kerbing and guttering was raised, and David suggested diplomatically that we need to ask the engineers what they are trying to achieve, and that there’s more than one answer to every question.
He talked of the Coaster Bus, which has been successful in some areas where there has not been unanimous council support for heritage, whereby the councillors and staff are taken on a tour of nearby towns to see how they solved similar problems.
Second speaker Suzannah Plowman (commissioned by Palerang Council in 2007 to write a Thematic History and Heritage Inventory of Lake George, Molonglo Valley and Burra) used a fascinating series of old prints and photographs to accompany her presentation.
It’s hard to imagine now that Lake George was once the largest freshwater lake in Australia, or that it was once heavily treed, at least along its periphery – an early photo showed a forest of dead trees, thought to be ring-barked.
Other tidbits include Captains Flat being originally divided into Bogtown and Bagtown, but the names didn’t stick! And the Clarke gang were ambushed then taken to Sydney to be executed, but it was noted that, far from their reputation, the gang appeared to be “sheepish country louts”.
Heritage advisor David Hobbes talked about heritage listings as part of the LEP process: about 500 places have been proposed, all having some connection to one or more elements of the history of Palerang – beginning with land grants, purchases, tenure and proceeding to pastoralism, bushrangers, lockups, then the villages, and dairying, mining, forestry, coach routes, tracks and institutions such as CWA, Oddfellows and the Masons.
While some properties are just a pile of rocks now, so may fall off the list unless the ruins are of interest, others desperately need to be on it as important examples of building styles/eras. Letters have been sent out to the owners of the properties proposed for listing to inform and seek comments.
There have been about a dozen negative responses so far, and David has talked to many of these respondents about their fears. Most people have already been doing a good job of conserving their places, but are suspicious of regulations and have no confidence in Council doing things properly.
Clearly Council has some way to go to reassure people that they will still be able to do things to their properties if they are listed. It was pointed out that listing may mean that their property’s value would increase rather than decrease.
The speakers all gave their time freely for what was an extremely worthwhile event, and HAC is extremely grateful to all of them for their illuminating and thought-provoking presentations. Catherine Moore and Judith Turley, HAC.
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