SAVE WILLIAMSTOWN
SAVE WILLIAMSTOWN
Developers need to listen to what Heritage Victoria recommends re Preservation of the Oriental Hotel
1854 (Coxes Family Hotel)
1863 (Barkly Hotel)
1871 (Barkly Hotel)
1904 (Oriental Hotel)
Mid 20th Century (Oriental Hotel)
1990s (Willy Tavern)
Hobsons Bay Weekly
Port Phillip Woollen Mill site: No half measures for historic hotel
By Goya Dmytryshchak
15:44:PM 29/10/2013
“Renovate or detonate? That’s the question hanging over Williamstown’s former Oriental Hotel on the Port Phillip Woollen Mill development site.
Heritage Victoria is investigating whether the hotel should be included on the state’s heritage register, while at the same time Victoria’s planning tribunal is deciding whether it should be demolished.
In February, Hobsons Bay council refused the demolition of the 1854 hotel, which is Williamstown’s second-oldest building and possibly the state’s first three-storey brick hotel........
.........Heritage Victoria executive director Tim Smith said an officer would inspect the hotel and then he would make a recommendation on whether to include the place on the register.
Mr Smith’s recommendation will be put on public notice and the community will have 60 days to make a submission.
VCAT was expected to hand down its decision as early as next month.
Evolve director Ashley Williams accused residents lobbying to save the hotel of delay tactics. He said people were being misled to think the hotel could be saved. “The reality is that the fabric of the building doesn’t even warrant a Hobsons Bay listing, let alone a state listing.
“This is a last-minute effort by the objectors to further delay the redevelopment of the site.”
Save Williamstown spokeswoman Charmian Gaud said the building was a rare example of a Victorian colonial Georgian hotel that had led to Heritage Victoria accepting a nomination for state heritage listing.”
Response to Ashley Williams in the above article:
Save Williamstown presented EXPERT structural evidence at he VCAT hearing.
To save and reconstruct the hotel:
1. Put a temporary steel gantry around the outside. Hire this
2. Secure the walls to the gantry and repair to the stage where it is safe to enter the building
3. Place a permanent steel structural framework inside the building which is load bearing
4. Complete the repair of the walls
5. The cost if the internal steel structure is designed to be load bearing for the new uses becomes an off set on the cost of the apartments or community rooms inside the building
6 When the walls and structural load bearing inside is complete, remove the gantry from the outside
Leaning Tower of Pisa principle as long as the structure for load bearing is sound - walls do not have to be plum
Cost around $2 million in a $300million project!!!
Developers need to respect heritage property not demolish it!
Thursday, 31 October 2013