The National Trust has threatened to take the ACT Heritage Council to the territory’s Supreme Court over the impending demolition of 1950s-designed public housing on Northbourne Avenue in Canberra.
The flats were designed by architect Sydney Ancher from Ancher Mortlock and Murray in 1959, and are listed on the Australian Institute of Architects Register of Significant 20th Century Architecture list. The dwellings are noted for their distinctive Post-War International Style.
The ACT Heritage Council heritage-listed around 40 percent of the dwellings in the Northbourne housing precinct earlier in 2015, but the National Trust wants all of the buildings to be listed as heritage.
The threat of court action comes after the dispute was thrown out at the Civil and Administrative Tribunal in May due to a technicality. A miscommunication meant that the National Trust’s submission on the topic was not sent in to the ACT Heritage Council on time.
National Trust spokesman Eric Martin said that the organization was trying to have its say and ensure that there was transparency and consistency in the council’s actions.
“We wrote to the ACT Heritage Council to be fair and reasonable and we suggested they should start the listing process again so we had an equal opportunity to get something in on time,” he said.
“They’ve declined, so our only action now is to take it to another court.”
The territory government has put forward a master plan to replace the housing precinct with a development that will provide more than 1200 new public housing dwellings. Only around 10 percent of the buildings on the site will be retained under this plan. The masterplan was prepared by Phillip Leeson Architects, Cox Architecture and Conrad Gargett Riddel Ancher Mortlock Woolley with heritage consultants Graham Brooks and Associates.
In February the ACT Heritage Council heritage-listed samples of each of the five types of buildings present in the precinct, including two bedsitter flats, the two-storey pair houses, three-storey maisonettes, four garden flats and a three-storey owen flat.
The council’s chairman David Flannery said the way the situation had unfolded was “unfortunate.”
“I really would have liked to have gone to the tribunal to let the National Trust put its case, but the decision was made based on the legislation and precedent,” he said.
He said that even though the submission wasn’t made on time, the ACT Heritage Council had still taken the National Trust’s evidence into account when making its decision about the site.
The Land Development Agency submitted applications to demolish the remaining housing early in June, meaning the government’s plan to develop the site may go ahead regardless of the court proceedings.
The Northbourne development sits along a proposed 12 kilometre light rail track. The territory government passed legislation earlier in 2015 that allows it to ignore conservation or heritage advice on any project within one kilometre of either existing or proposed lightrail track, as reported in The Canberra Times.
More on this topic: Sydney Ancher’s architectural legacy under threat
