Page 2546 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 7 August 1991
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Mr Duby: Surely it was our fault.
MR WOOD: Not on this occasion, Mr Duby, no. It is a remarkable set of circumstances that such a range of buildings could have been allowed to degenerate to the stage they were; that the authorities at the time, both American and Commonwealth, did nothing to protect them. Possible use of these sites was addressed in the Namadgi management plan, which was adopted in 1986. The plan states that, should it be impractical to convert the buildings for a suitable use or to find workable management arrangements, the buildings should be removed. The ACT Parks and Conservation Service found using the buildings for management purposes to be totally impractical.
The Standing Committee on Conservation, Heritage and the Environment conducted an inquiry into the future of the space tracking stations and tabled a report on 23 October 1990. The report contains 14 recommendations concerning the demolition of the stations and the historical record that is to remain.
The committee has recommended that the sites not be made available for private development. Given the scale of the problems with connection to the electricity grid and concerns about treatment of wastes, it is unlikely that any commercial development at the sites would be viable. The committee believed that the sites were a valuable interpretation resource for visitors to Namadgi and that efforts should be made at the sites to present the story of the role of the facilities in space exploration. The Government supports those recommendations.
The committee recommended that a visible reminder be left of the extent of the buildings and that at the least the walls should be left standing to a height of 20 centimetres. At Honeysuckle Creek the committee suggested that an investigation be made of the feasibility of leaving the shell of the main building devoid of internal fittings.
The Environment and Conservation Division has investigated the committee's recommendations, with the assistance of ACT Public Works, and has recommended that the intention of the committee to leave a record for posterity can be met if the sites are demolished to floor level, leaving the slabs and footings intact. At both sites this would result in the outline of the buildings remaining, as most of the footings are above ground level.
Advice from ACT Public Works is that the main building at Honeysuckle Creek already requires significant restoration work and will continue to require maintenance for as long as it remains. To ignore this will result in significant risks to those who enter the sites, and may lead to damages claims against the ACT Government if an accident occurs.
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