Mercy’s fate decided tonight

The Development Application (DA) - submitted by John Byrne on behalf of Sydney owner Angelo Doukas - to demolish the former hospital, dining room, workshop and shed was fast-tracked following a rescission motion made last Wednesday.

The DA first came to the attention of the public when it was advertised around June 14, welcoming the community to make a submission for or against the demolition by July 1.

The DA - including a two-page heritage report and seven submissions concerning heritage value, contribution to the heritage streetscape, potential reuse of the buildings, lack of full assessment of the reuse options, the visual impacts of the demolition and the impacts on heritage related tourism - went to council’s July 17 monthly meeting.

This meeting saw Mr Byrne and local woman Judith Pugh address council in the open forum. 

In a three to six vote, council resolved to wait two months for a full heritage report to be prepared before deciding what to do with the site.

Ms Pugh will be addressing council again in the open forum tonight after this decision was rescinded. 

Local historian and heritage consultant Joe Kinsela was the first to take a stand against the proposed demolition of what he described as “the most prominent building on the Campbell Street frontage”.

The Mercy Care Hospital – formerly called Sacred Heart Hospital up until the 1960s – was first opened in 1911.

It is the first hospital in country NSW built by a Roman Catholic parish which saw Father Hennessy persuade the Sisters of the Sacred Heart to come to Young and run the new venture.

“This means complete removal of the earliest structure on the site, (102 years of our history) with its 1960s additions, the maternity ward (Berthong Street), the dining room and the workshop and store rooms (all on the Bruce Street side of the block),” Mr Kinsela wrote in a column published in The Witness on June 26.

“If this building is demolished, with it goes one of the most important links with the story of the great Monsignor Hennessy and the Catholic Parish of Young,” he said.

The hospital is an example of the ‘convent style’ of 19th and early 20th Century Australia. 

This recognisable phase of building followed the ideals of Victorian era construction with added references to medieval Gothic design, including high-pitched roofs, arched windows and battlements, and niches for statues.

The final form of the old building was completed in 1926 with two-storeyed verandahs facing Berthong Street.

Mr Kinsela said the building still housed “impressive classical columns and a splendid staircase”, sequence of piers with small decorative supporters and some “lovely plaster ceilings and other detail remain from the remorseless late 20th Century renovations”.

Mr Kinsela contends the two-page heritage report given to councillors at their last monthly meeting had a “number of holes”.

“They should have been given a full account, detailed description then they should pull out their arguments on that but they haven’t done that,” he said.

There are three items in Young listed on the NSW State Heritage Register – Blackguard Gully, the former City Bank on the corner of Boorowa and Lynch streets and the Young Railway Station and Yard Group (Blayney-Harden railway) – and the old hospital is not one of them.

It is also not listed in council’s Voluntary Heritage List – which contains 125 items – in their Local Environment Plan.

Cr Sandy Freudenstein made the comment at July’s council meeting that “even her mother’s house, Blair Athol (1893-4) wasn’t heritage listed”.

To be listed on the NSW State Heritage Register an item must be significant for the whole of NSW.

Anyone is welcome to nominate a place or object for listing on the State Heritage Register.

Council concluded in the DA report that “the proposed development complies with all of council’s development controls and meets the primary objectives … all relevant matters have been addressed”.

“There are no reasons warranting the refusal of this application,” the report said.

It has been reported to The Young Witness that local interest groups were planning to circulate a petition opposing the development application.

These plans were circumvented by council’s decision last week to bring forward their decision.

The public is welcome to attend today’s meeting.