Heritage Conservation Area Review

The city of Bathurst incorporates two existing Heritage Conservation Areas: the Bathurst Heritage Conversation Area and the West Bathurst Conservation Area.

Council recently adopted the Bathurst 2036 Housing Strategy. The Housing Strategy identified five precincts, the majority outside of the existing Heritage Conservation Areas, as areas where long term renewal might be appropriate to increase the density and choice of housing within proximity to the centre of Bathurst. The Housing Strategy recommended that Council investigate the heritage significance of these areas, amongst a range of issues, to determine their suitability or otherwise for long term renewal.

Council has subsequently prepared the Heritage Conservation Area Review 2018 and has placed the study on public exhibition.

You have been notified of the study as the recommendations of the study include either the individual listing of your building as a heritage item or the inclusion of your property within the boundaries of a heritage conservation area, under the Bathurst Regional Local Environmental Plan 2018.

Objectives of the Study

1. Review the boundaries of the Bathurst and West Bathurst Heritage Conservation Areas.
2. Identify buildings or areas that should be listed as heritage items or included within the existing Heritage Conservation Area boundary or within a new Heritage Conservation Area.
3. Prepare a statement of significance for areas and/or sites recommended for listing or inclusion in a Heritage Conservation Area.
4. Review the five precincts identified in the Bathurst 2036 Housing Strategy to determine:
   a) The significance of the existing building stock;
   b) Whether all or part of each precinct is suitable for housing renewal in terms of the significance of that building stock; and
   c) Prepare preliminary future character statements for each precinct where urban renewal is supported.

Key recommendations

The Study makes the following key recommendations:

1. Maintain all the existing Heritage Conservation Area boundariess.
2. Expand the Heritage Conservation Area boundaries to ensure it accounts for properties on the opposite side of the road to manage new non-contributory development.
3. Increase the Heritage Conservation Area boundary to include the Munition Cottages, and new parts of West Bathurst (Keppel Street, upper West Street and Edgell Street).
4. Subject to the review of the Bathurst Floodplain Management Plan, consider an increase in the maximum height of buildings permissible to 12m for the lower Havannah Street precinct.
5. Prepare detailed design guidelines to guide the future development of those areas identified as being suitable for future urban renewal.
6. List the following properties as heritage items on the Bathurst Regional Local Environmental Plan 2014:

7-17 West Street, West Bathurst;
52-60 Havannah Street, Bathurst;
12 Gormans Hill Road, Gormans Hill;
23 and 29 Hope Street, Bathurst;
69 Stanley Street, Bathurst; and
Former Gasworks site (noting that this property would be included in the LEP list as being of State Significance).

Key Implications of the Study’s recommendations

1. Local Listing of the Gasworks site
   

   Council’s Planning Department has previously sought to list the Gasworks Site on the Local Environmental Plan (LEP). Council has previously resolved not to proceed to an LEP listing. Nonetheless the site is of State, if not national significance, and the Heritage Conservation Area Review recommends it be listed on the LEP.

2. Design Guidance
   

   The Heritage Conservation Area Review recommends the development of detailed design guidelines to guide the urban renewal of localities considered in the review. These design guidelines would sit within the Development Control Plan to guide future development works to ensure that they are sympathetic to the character of the area.

3. 20^th Century Architecture
   

   The Heritage Conservation Area Review sought to consider the value of the existing building stock outside of the existing heritage conservation area boundaries. This building stock is largely 20^th century buildings mostly constructed in the 1940/50/60s. A lot of it is modest housing.

   Many might argue that modern architecture is not of heritage value but, as time goes by, what we value as a community changes. What makes Bathurst special is that it boosts architecture from over 200 years of Australia’s history and that includes its recent history. What we value is not just a building or an areas aesthetic appearance it is also its links to our social history and important persons in the history of Bathurst.

   The Heritage Conservation Area Review has identified an additional area of 20^th century architecture, the Munitions Cottages, as one of three areas within the city that represent the best examples of modest social housing in the City from that period. These are:

Duration Cottages
Chifley Memorial Estate
Munitions Cottages – Moodie Place, Chifley Place, Hansard Place, Tremain Ave, Kelly Place and Veness Streets

The Duration Cottages and Chifley Memorial Estate were previously identified under earlier studies and are already protected in existing heritage conservation areas. This study recommends the inclusion of the Munition cottages within a Heritage Conservation Area.

The Munition Cottages were constructed between 1942 and 1943 in support of the war effort and the nearby Munitions factory at 369 Stewart Street. One hundred fibro houses were constructed as a result of a general shortage of housing in 1941. Mr JB Chifley was involved in the project and made a particular point of making housing available for single men.

The Heritage Conservation Area also recommends the inclusion of some 1950s and 1960s housing in West Bathurst as some of the better examples of housing from this era worthy of long term retention should the renewal of other housing occur into the future.

Summary

The Heritage Conservation Area Review is an investigation to review and consider the fringes of the existing Heritage Conservation Area boundaries within the City of Bathurst as development potential increases. The Heritage Conservation Area Review has also been essential in shedding light on areas previously considered to have limited significance to the history of Bathurst. This is particularly relevant to the Munitions Cottages.

The study has been placed on public exhibition and submissions have been invited with respect to the study’s recommendations.

The study in itself does not list properties as a heritage item or include them within a Heritage Conservation Area, it only recommends that Council proceed, as the next step, to that listing process.

Following Councils consideration of the adoption of the Heritage Conservation Area Review, Council would then prepare a planning proposal to amend the Bathurst Regional Local Environmental Plan to alter the Heritage Conservation Area boundaries as recommended and list the recommended heritage items. This process is expected to take approximately 12 months and will include further consultation with all property owners.