OUR HERITAGE AT RISK - SOUTH AUSTRALIA - 2008

Place:Glenside Hospital, 226 Fullarton Road, Glenside
Threat: Loss of heritage values through poorly planned development

Significance:
Glenside Hospital occupies a large site of over 130 acres close to the Adelaide CBD. The hospital is one Australia’s best examples of mid nineteenth century planning for the mentally ill.

The original concept was for a series of substantial and high quality stone buildings, formally arranged within a park like campus, surrounded by farms. The heritage values of Glenside relate not only to the architectural quality of individual buildings but also the sophistication of the original site planning. The quality of this scheme has been diminished, particularly by the design and location of new buildings erected from the 1970s, but remains discernable and recoverable. The spirit of the original campus plan has the potential to provide a sympathetic basis for guiding the location, form and scale  of new buildings on the site.  The 2003 Conservation and Management Plan does not adequately assess the significance of this aspect of Glenside.

The campus includes nine State Heritage listed buildings, eleven structures nominated for local heritage listing and almost two hundred significant trees.

Threat:
The Department of Health plans to erect a new hospital on part of the site. This program involves the sale and redevelopment of large areas of the campus.

The best practice approach to a site of Glenside’s significance is to prepare a well researched  masterplan for the whole site. This must, firstly, document the key qualities of the place which need to be sustained and then identify appropriate new uses for redundant buildings and suitable sites and forms for new buildings which will not compromise the heritage significance of the place as a whole.

Unfortunately the current Glenside Campus Concept Masterplan is a poorly conceived ad hoc planning document which does not represent best practice principles in managing and developing an historic place. 

The current masterplan  divides the site into five precints: - a heritage precinct, a commercial precinct fronting Fullerton Road, two precincts identified for residential development and a precinct for the development of a new hospital.

The methodology is deeply flawed. A proper masterplan is needed which treats the site as a whole and respects, and recaptures some of the spirit of the original landscape plan.

• Particular weaknesses in the current masterplan are:
  the lack of protection for eleven buildings of local heritage significance (there are now in fact only ten, one having been hastily demolished on 27th June, 2008)
  
• the destruction of a large number of significant trees
  
• intense commercial development, including a large shopping complex, along the Fullarton Road frontage, irrevocably changing the park like character of the Glenside campus

Action Required:
Preparation of properly scoped masterplan for the whole site, including a thorough assessment of the landscape values of the whole site,  the brief to be prepared in consultation with the Heritage Branch of the Department for Environment and Heritage and the National Trust. The master planning  process to include full consultation with key stakeholders including local residents, hospital staff, patients and their families Burnside Council and the National Trust.

No action should be taken regarding the sale and further demolition of any part of the campus until a new masterplan is completed. This must, firstly, document the key qualities of the place which need to be sustained and recovered, particularly the landscape values, and then identify appropriate new uses for redundant buildings and suitable sites and forms for new buildings which will not compromise the heritage significance of the place. A review of the land required for current and future mental health services should be part of this process.