Calls Grow Louder for the Restoration of Morpeth Railway Station

BY CHARLOTTE LLOYD

 Following last months push from Councillor Mitchell Griffin for the restoration of Morpeth Railway Station, member for Maitland Jenny Aitchison has since followed suit. 

Joining with concerned local residents, Jenny Aitchison is calling for the NSW  Government to restore the recently listed heritage site.

Since the restoration of the site in 1988, it has since been left as a storage site for NSW Public Works.  

“The NSW Government’s failure to preserve this historic building shows a total disregard for the heritage of Morpeth and the amenity of the local community.”

In similarity to the refurbished Newcastle station, a major reason for the restoration is based on the cultural and historical significance of the site that the station could provide to both the Morpeth community and tourists to the area. 

"The Maitland Heritage Conservation Group and the Business Chamber have been working together for quite a long time now, to try and get action on this site."

"No one wants to seem to take responsibility for the care and uptake of it and it's a real problem." 

With 2021 as the bicentenary of the European settlement, locals are keen to see the site restored as an icon of Morpeth. 

"The Liberals and Nationals have neglected this important heritage site for over a decade and it needs to be restored."

Morpeth Railway Station today as a storage facility
Image: Mitchell Griffin

Calls for Morpeth Railway Station to be returned to the public

BY JARROD MELMETH

Maitland City Council will discuss an idea to return the historic Morpeth Railway Station back to the public, opening it up for use as a community events space.

The station was built in 1889 before it closed in 1952 and has been fenced off to the public. In recent years has been used as a storage yard for NSW Public Works.

Councillor Mitchell Griffin has submitted a motion to the council which will be discussed at Tuesday's meeting calling on officers to write to the NSW Government to relocate the storage site to another location, and allow the site to be utilised by the public.

Cr Griffin would like to see the station transformed into a similar venue as the Newcastle Station.

"I have had approaches from many groups, organisations and businesses in Morpeth with a keen interest in seeing this site restored.

"Suggestions so far include community organisations, expansion of Morpeth Museum, cafe and restaurant space, gallery space, even bicycle hire, the list of opportunity is endless.

"The building itself is starting to fall in to a sad state of disrepair. The community want their station back, it's an important part of their history," Cr Griffin.

Morpeth Railway Station today as a storage facility
Image: Mitchell Griffin

Historial Morpeth Better Off This Way

BY JESSICA ROUSE

Morpeth residents slammed a decision by Maitland City Council to not hold consultations for a state heritage listing register on properties, but council say it's for the better.

The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage wrote to the council to seek support for the listing on all properties for the historic town.

The office asked for council's "in-principal" support of the register on all properties stating it would allow council more time to consider the nomination and determine if any operational issues would arise.

Councillor Philip Penfold said voting against the listing was the best outcome because realistically not all of the homes in Morpeth are heritage, or in fact old, some are just one year old.

"This isn't a listing that would just affect the homeowners of Morpeth, this is a listing that would last forever, for generations ahead of time,"

"These properties in many cases are between 1 year old and 40 years old - these properties are the ones that shouldn't have this listing," said Councillor Penfold.

Morpeth is listed as a Heritage Conservation Area already with a few properties of historical significance on the State Heritage Register.

Council also say having all of the properties put on a register would impact what homeowners could do to them, making a simple alteration or a small renovation more difficult to achieve jumping through heritage hoops.

"What would concern me was that to go for a year or more to have an extensive consultation period will decimate the housing market in Morpeth - it will put a cloud of uncertainty over property transactions. I've already had people call me late last week concerned that they've got properties listed and they're unsure what might happen if the Labor party were to succeed in their mission to list state heritage register on every single Morpeth property," said Councillor Penfold.

"We need to be careful not to just listen to a noisy minority. We need to listen to the entirety of a community and this isn't just affecting the people who currently live in Morpeth, this affects Morpeth into generations."

EARLIER:

No Say For Morpeth Residents on Heritage

No Say For Morpeth Residents on Heritage

BY JESSICA ROUSE

A request for support of a consultation process with the Morpeth community to get a heritage nomination listing underway has been knocked back by Maitland City Council.

At council's meeting on Tuesday night eight of the twelve councilors voted against the consultation requested by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage.

The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage suggested in a letter to the council that they provide "in principal" support for the nomination to allow the Heritage Division to begin community consultation in Morpeth and surrounds to determine what support there is for the listing.

The consultation would happen before any official heritage listing.

Morpeth Heritage Conservation Group President Simon Brooker is slamming the council's decision and said it's not the first time they've tried to get the town heritage listing -  back in 2007 Morpeth received a nomination but then it seemed council tossed it in the bottom drawer.

"I don't know whether there's sour grapes within the components of Maitland City Council that certain people didn't get elected into the positions that they wanted or whether there's another agenda there we just don't know. But just voting no to allow a community to have a say is reprehensible as far as a council is concerned," said Simon.

Simon also said the heritage nomination won't stop any development within the town, but what it will do is make sure any development is consistent with the heritage of the town and its surrounding countryside.

He said the decision council made against the town having a say doesn't bode well for the their future.

"It's staggering and what is even more staggering is that our elected council, the people who we vote in and whose rates we pay, decided to vote no for allowing their community to have a say on their future. It's absolutely quite extraordinary," said Simon.

Marketing campaign aims to boost Maitland's visitor economy

BY BROOKE HEINZ

A $90,000 marketing campaign designed to draw tourists to Maitland will begin this week. 

The Visitor Economy campaign will see billboards constructed along the eastern approach to the city and flyers sent to all Maitland households next week. 

A social media campaign using the hashtag '#MyMaitland' is also underway, with locals encouraged to share their experiences online.

Council's Coordinator Marketing and Communications Matt vanderWall said the campaign focuses on bringing the friends and family of residents to the city in an attempt to further strengthen its visitor economy, which is currently worth $108 million annually.

"What we want to do is we want to get people in Maitland to invite someone to come and stay with them," vanderWall said. "Even if every person in Maitland invited one person to come and stay with them from outside of Maitland for one night that would equate to over $10 million."

Image: MyMaitland. Mural by Trevor Dickinson.

Further initiatives under the Visitor Economy campaign will be rolled out on a continual basis.

More development headache's for Morpeth

BY JARROD MELMETH AND JESSICA ROUSE

A development application has been lodged with Maitland City Council for a three-storey apartment block at Morpeth, but residents say it will lead to major traffic and parking issues in the area.
The proposed site is the former Griffins Motors site in Swan Street, but there's a major issue - it's part of the Morpeth heritage conservation area.

GHT Holdings are looking to transform the site, and the Heritage Impact Statement they lodged says the project will have minimal impact on the heritage significance of the surrounding conservation area and nearby heritage items.

The developer also says the design is supposed to resemble stables and reflect the town's transport history.

However, some Morpeth residents totally disagree.

The unit block would be called Morpeth Central Residences bordering William and Market Streets with a contemporary design including rendered walls, vertically oriented windows, face brickwork, corrugated metal roofs, a verandah and also solar panels and a row of single garages at the rear of the site to cater for car parking needs.

Morpeth Central Residences Image maitlandmercury.com.au from Statement of Heritage Impact report
which was written by John Carr Heritage Design for developer GHT Holdings

President of the Morpeth Heritage Conservation Group Simon Brooker says he hopes commonsense will prevail and the application won't progress.

"It's two storey's, it's inconsistent with the street line, it sticks out like a sore thumb and it's just totally and utterly inappropriate to the township."

"We're looking at an application for 28 2-bedroom apartments plus parking for 26 cars - now that in itself causes a significant issue because if you look at the last census in 2011 the average household has 2 cars, we're looking at an additional 30-plus vehicles," said Simon Brooker.

Maitland Council are seeking feedback on the plans until April 12.

Morpeth Bridge is closing again, prompting fears from business owners.

BY JESSICA ROUSE

Morpeth Bridge is undergoing yet another round of restoration works which has forced its full closure from today until 6pm on Monday - much to the dismay of many local businesses.

The closure is required for the installation of temporary support structures which will allow remediation work to be undertaken.

However the weekend is often the busiest time of the week for trade and with one road into the town closed off, local business owners fear their profit will be at another loss.

Local business owner Andrew Mason says while the community are supportive of the bridge closure so it stays fully functioning into the future, businesses still have grave concerns.

"Typically the businesses reported at the last business closure a significant drop in revenue for that weekend and we have approached RMS [Roads and Maritime Services] to discuss with them how we might solve that problem for the businesses not for this closure but for the following closures which will occur in May and August this year."

Andrew says there wasn't enough communication between the RMS and local businesses regarding the closures, but hopes this will change in the future.

Local businesses have already had one win with the closure scheduled for Mother's Day weekend in May being moved to earlier in the week.

There will be two more bridge closures this year including May, and another in August.

Image courtesy of http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au

Morpeth up for the state heritage register

BY JACINTA LEE

The town of Morpeth could soon be registered as a state heritage site.

The Morpeth Heritage Conservation Group lodged an application with the NSW Department of Planning today, to help preserve the town's unique identity.

The street layout almost matches its original design from 1845, and conservationists are eager to keep it out of developers' hands.

"A lot of developers and people against what we're doing say we're against progress," Simon Brooker, President of the Conservation Group, says.

"Essentially, we're just trying to protect the valuable heritage of the town for future enjoyment."

Morpeth residents concerns over development sites

BY JESSICA ROUSE

Development plans for the former Morpeth Bowling Club site isn't the only cause for concern among residents in Morpeth.

A 50 - lot sub division is planned for neighbouring Raworth but residents fear it will increase traffic impacting residents safety.

It already hasn't been smooth sailing for the development which was originally rejected by council and has since been amended.

Morpeth Heritage Conservation Group President Simon Brooker says there isn't a lot to argue about with the site as it meets requirements, but recent developments do give cause for concern.

"The only thing that we're helping the local residents object to is that an additional application has gone in by the developer to reduce a number of lot sizes down to around the 400 metre mark. Again completely inappropriate for the area."

This will make the lot sizes significantly smaller than current residential lot sizes.

The former bowling club site continues to be a sore spot for the town which thrives as the second most visited region in the Hunter.

Residents and business owners fear a senior housing development will significantly detract from the rural setting of the town and also affect its high tourism rate.

Developers argue the Morpeth Heritage Conservation Group are completely against development of any kind, but Simon Brooker says, "We are not against development and we are definitely not against seniors housing, but it needs to be appropriately positioned and it should not impact negatively on the heritage and rural setting of the town".

Bowling Club to Become Seniors Estate

The former Morpeth Bowling Club Site is set to become a seniors residential center after it was passed by Maitland Council and moved on to the NSW Department of Planning.

Some Councillors however fear that the development will lead to medium-density residential blocks built in the future.

But Maitland Mayor Peter Blackmore says "there's a need everywhere for retirement homes, we are an aging society ... we have five new new people a day making Maitland their home".

Councillors voted on Tuesday to rezone the site (Image courtesy of Max Mason-Hubers via The Herald)

"There are quite a number of people of course, who would like to move out of their three or four bedroom home and look for smaller accommodation".

"When we look at the township of Morpeth, it's a magnificent area, particularly with history".

The proposal will soon become open for public comment.