OUR HERITAGE AT RISK -  VICTORIA - 2009

•  ETA factory (former ETA foods factory, Maribyrnong)
• Urban Heritage and green wedges, Melbourne
•  Unprotected buildings and objects in Melbourne’s CBD
• Stony Rises, Shire of Corangamite (cultural - inc indigenous - and ecological landscape)

MOST AT RISK PLACES

Place: ETA factory (former ETA foods factory, Maribyrnong)
Threat: Deterioration

Description of Risk:
The ETA factory was one of the outstanding industrial designs of the mid century modernist period. Designed by Frederick Romberg of the famous firm of Grounds Romberg & Boyd its distinctive black panelled curtain wall, angled bracing, sculpture courtyard and modernist garden was internationally known. Purchased with the intention of demolition for a car yard, subsequent registration prevented demolition, but owners decided on another site and left the building vacant. Subject to vandalism, and then the removal and safe storage of remaining curtain walling and other elements has left only the skeleton and roof, slowly deteriorating.

Desired Outcome / Vision:
A full restoration of the building.

Place: Urban Heritage and green wedges, Melbourne
Threat: Deterioration

Urban Sprawl and the pressure of being one of the worlds most liveable cities.

Description of Risk:
 With the State Government’s new planning blueprint “Melbourne@ 5 million” and extension of direct planning control, both the heritage of many suburban centres and Melbourne’s ‘lungs’, the Green Wedges, are at risk. Inner city and middle ring areas may find their typical 19th and early 20th century character, notably the distinctive 'strip' shopping centres which contribute to Melbourne's reputation of 'one of the world's most liveable cities', threatened by large-scale development.

At the same time, the urban growth boundary will be expanded to the south east, and especially the west, filling in some of the ‘green wedges’, which provide accessible open space in a unique planning innovation, and  replacing these green fields with low density housing.

Desired Outcome / Vision:
The City of Melbourne to implement the recommendations of various studies that numerous buildings, and objects and interiors should receive local heritage protection.

Place: Unprotected buildings and objects in Melbourne’s CBD
Threat: Destruction & damage

Description of Risk:
The range of buildings, from the early 1850s through Victorian, Interwar but especially post-WWII, represents a fuller picture of the heritage of the CBD than existing listings. Many city buildings were protected by 1984, but not one new place has been listed by the Melbourne City Council since then. 

Street objects (eg horse troughs) and building interiors (eg lobbies) are necessary to fully round out the extent and types of places. A large number of places missed, or now considered significant, are vulnerable to demolition. As recently as 2007 a rare C19th Oriental style building was demolished with no opposition from Council.

Desired Outcome / Vision:
The City of Melbourne to implement the recommendations of various studies that numerous buildings, and objects and interiors should receive local heritage protection.

Place: Stony Rises, Shire of Corangamite (cultural - inc indigenous - and ecological landscape)
Threat: Deterioration

Description of Risk:
The Stony Rises is an unique landscape within Australia, comprising interlocking lava ridges which enclose swampy hollows with important and endangered vegetation and cultural significance, including Aboriginal  fish-traps and early European buildings and stone walls. The fragmentary nature of the land ownership places the landscape at risk through neglect, and inappropriate landuse, leading to desiccation of swamps and weed invasion, and deterioration of stone walls. Deliberate acts of rock rolling, proposed four wheel driving, and poor design of road improvements and implementation of an incorrect fire regime furthers the deterioration.

Desired Outcome / Vision:
1. Increased public ownership as State or National Park including stronger planning controls to limit vegetation clearing, and  to control weeds                                                          
2. Immediate prohibition of rock rolling and other destructive  activities     
3. Constraints on road re-modelling which threaten to straighten the unique “wiggly” road, and
4. introduction of planning controls to protect historic buildings and maintain existing stone walls