Part Two – post 1920s - Newcastle City Council

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to remain in the precinct in this plan were the City Administration Building and (part of) the Fred c Ash building. A few months later, in April 1988, a more extensive concept was made public. The Fred c Ash building was again incorporated into an international hotel, which was to be flanked on the east by a low-line retail and cinema complex, and a 34-storey (>120m) office and retail tower at the Darby Street corner. Council now owned all but three properties within the block between Darby and Hunter Streets and Wheeler Place, designated for this development. Figure 46: Plan showing arrangement of Stage Two buildings on the civic land Public meetings, petitions, green bans, and a challenge in the Land and Environment Court followed the initial community reaction to the 31storey tower proposal. Newcastle Trades Hall Council, the Newcastle Division of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, the National Trust and a coalition of resident action groups led the counteraction. The tower scheme won the approval of the council in June 1988. The proposal appears to have been expanded in scope again because in October 1988, a new company ‘Babiya Constructions’ presented a revised scheme. The development remained the same but the new overall scheme also included the Town Hall, Nesca House and the City Administration Building. Community groups called upon the Minister for Planning to institute a public inquiry into the development consent granted to Babiya. 98 Amid other considerations it was said that the publicly owned civic land was being developed without calling public tenders. By December 1988 the anti-tower petition carried over 6000 signatures. Figure 47: The 31-storey tower would be higher than the Hill plus the Cathedral plus the Town Hall. This impression was published in the Newcastle Morning Herald 17 June 1988 Meanwhile, geo-technical considerations brought about the need to significantly lower the planned tower to 23 storeys. The presence of old coal workings beneath the ground led to this alteration. 98 Newcastle Herald 18 October 1988 Newcastle Civic and Cultural Precinct History ~ Cynthia Hunter ~ January 2003 page 60
(Part of the civic site is about 20 metres (variable) above the Yard coal seam and about 60 metres above the Borehole coal seam, both of which were worked in the 19 th century. Any building over three storeys in height needs concrete infill of the Yard seam to satisfy Mines Subsidence Board requirements. This was the case with the Australian Taxation Office. Any building over 20 storeys needed geo-technical investigation of the status of the Borehole seam workings. 99 ) In June 1989, under legal challenge in the Land and Environment Court, Babiya agreed to surrender the approval for the controversial development and the option over the site subsequently expired. 100 No more plans would be considered, it was said, until the State government and the Newcastle Council undertook a major joint ‘city centre’ study. Three months later it was announced that council had bought additional properties between Burwood and Darby Streets thereby affirming its commitment to the redevelopment of an extended site. 101 29 Civic site since the Newcastle Earthquake December 1989 The Newcastle Earthquake December 1989 interrupted many things including the site study proposed by the State government. The event caused varying degrees of damage to many buildings. To some people the earthquake provided an opportunity to demolish buildings seen as of little economic use. Other people challenged the haste to demolish familiar city buildings without more thorough investigation into the need to do so. The city’s commercial interests looked forward to a new Newcastle, post-earthquake, with high rise, high profile landmark buildings. 102 Council also saw advantage in removing all the old civic land buildings that were bought for precinct redevelopment, with the exception of the Fred c Ash building, which was protected by a Permanent Conservation Order. Concerned for the preservation of the heritage values of the city, the National Trust however acted in February 1990 to recognise and list numerous items hitherto unrecorded but now under threat, including those in the civic block marked for demolition and all the buildings in the ‘Fred c Ash group’. The National Trust also appealed for demolitions to be postponed until new development applications were approved. However, council who now owned all the buildings between Darby Street and Wheeler Place except for the Brown Derby Café, which had been purchased by the company that had proposed the 34-storey tower and associated development103 wanted to enhance the land package for development. Demolition of three of the listed buildings between the Clarendon Hotel and the Hunter/Burwood Streets corner was sanctioned and carried out in July 1990. 104 Conservation groups regretted the destruction of the horizontal perspective of the civic streetscape. 99 ‘Civic Site Prospectus’, 1992, p 34 100 Newcastle Herald 20 June 1989 101 Newcastle Herald 6 September 1989 102 Newcastle Herald 5 January 1990 103 Newcastle Herald 23 June 1990 104 Buildings demolished were the NBS building, the Israel building, and the Commercial Retail Building (Nos 323 to 333 Hunter Street) and No 10 Burwood Street Newcastle Civic and Cultural Precinct History ~ Cynthia Hunter ~ January 2003 page 61
Page 1 and 2: We are building a civic monument se
Page 3 and 4: In the 1980s it became apparent tha
Page 5 and 6: 14 Civic Park - acquiring the land
Page 7 and 8: the Electric Supply Department. Chr
Page 9 and 10: 17 Civic precinct development in th
Page 11 and 12: walkway and flight of stairs links
Page 13 and 14: Figure 36: 1960s aerial view of the
Page 15 and 16: After 1957, the Cultural Centre Wom
Page 17 and 18: ooks but because they should have t
Page 19 and 20: on purchases by the director. Visit
Page 21 and 22: occasions. Just two years after the
Page 23 and 24: Reaction from the community was var
Page 25 and 26: In 1909, two of Frederick Ash’s s
Page 27 and 28: in opposing light in a lengthy deba
Page 29 and 30: financier and lessee. Many jobs wou
Page 31: Stage Two was planned to be the hot
Page 35 and 36: 30 1992 Civic Prospectus In June 19
Page 37 and 38: complex was completed. A solicitor,
Page 39 and 40: 33 Acknowledgment of Sources Books:
Page 41 and 42: Black Diamond Hotel (right). Part o
Page 43: 1986 Figure 44 Illustration of the

Part Two – post 1920s - Newcastle City Council

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