In January, 2015 the National Trust was successful in its request for the making of an Interim Heritage Order to protect the Avoca Beach Theatre from a damaging development and to allow time for the NSW Heritage Council to review the theatre's heritage significance.
The Avoca Beach Theatre was listed on the National Trust Register in December, 2001 and the National Trust has been urging Gosford City Council to list the theatre as an Item of Environmental Heritage for more than 14 years. The Trust understands that the Heritage Division has also corresponded with Gosford Council (8 July, 2005) seeking its Heritage Listing on the Council’s Local Environmental Plan.
With the making of the Council’s new Gosford Local Environmental Plan 2014 and the absence of the theatre from its Heritage Schedule, it appears that Gosford City Council is not prepared to recognize the theatre’s heritage significance.
The National Trust contends that this theatre has State Heritage Significance:
- as a very rare surviving example of a small coastal picture theatre,
- for its social significance evidenced by the massive support statewide for its retention from people all round NSW who have visited and hold the theatre in high esteem,
- for its historical significance being a rare surviving theatre being built and still owned by the same family; and
- for its aesthetic significance – there is no other theatre in NSW of this style set in a coastal parkland setting.
