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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-12-01 Daily Xml
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Waite Gatehouse

Mr DULUK (Waite) (15:15): My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. Minister, can you please update the house on when the historic Waite Gatehouse will be relocated to its new home within the Waite campus? Sir, with your leave and that of the house, I will further explain.

Leave granted.

Mr DULUK: I thought the house might appreciate a bit of a time line. As we know, in December 2020, the state government announced that it would demolish the Waite Gatehouse and, after joining with thousands of protesters, this decision was reversed. On 15 March 2021, the government announced that they will instead relocate the gatehouse to a new site. Plans for the new building were released and approved in August this year, but since then we have heard little. Some three months later, minister, can you please let us know when work will actually begin on this important community project?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:16): I thank the member for the question and note how wonderful it was to work with the local community and find a solution that actually meant that the heritage of that building was maintained and it's actually going to be put into a usable space and facility. What I did do, and I had the privilege of—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —having a look through the gatehouse about a month or so ago and can I tell you whilst it might look okay on the outside—

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Reynell is called to order.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —inside it has gone to rack and ruin. The derelict nature of that building and—

Mr Szakacs interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Cheltenham!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —the fact that it's not used for any purpose whatsoever, it really was not a functional building. It was great to work with the university and then to be able to actually work with them and work with companies to move it brick by brick as opposed to picking it up and carrying it which was the first thought that people were looking at. So the solution I think will be an outstanding solution.

As far as the time line is concerned, I know work is being done. I will get back to the member with the specifics of it, but being able to move it brick by brick, and in fact move it closer to the gate that is actually on the property now, the irony of all this is the gatehouse as it was positioned was there to protect the gate of that property. The gate that it was there to protect disappeared a number of years ago—no-one knows where it is—so it actually didn't have a gate to protect.

Where it will be relocated, and with the designs that the member talks about, it is going to be far more usable for the university, the campus, hopefully for volunteers, and those groups as well will be able to use this as it is repurposed and the company that is looking to do this has a great history in this sort of set-up.

What will actually happen is the house gets pulled down brick by brick and every piece is actually numbered and then put back in piece by piece, place by place. So the actual character of the building will be maintained which I think is what the community wanted as we went out and consulted with community on that and that's what we are going to get.

Whilst technically the heritage is not quite the same, some people in the heritage space feel that if you move a building like that, some of the heritage is lost. But the community actually wanted the character kept and maintained. By bringing it down brick by brick and rebuilding it in a position that actually will be usable and make it accessible for the community I think will be a really great result and a great win. Of course, the road project will get done as well, so it's a great outcome. But the time and the detail I will get back to the member on.

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