Media Statement – Millers Point
The National Trust is seeking an immediate halt to Government Property NSW’s call “to register your interest in purchasing a Millers Point Property” which is being promoted on the Family and Community Services Website.
“The announced proposal to sell 293 properties in Millers Point has been taken without any consultation with the National Trust. This is despite the entire area being listed on the National Trust Register in 1978 as an Urban Conservation Area and the Trust having listed 127 individual properties in Millers Point on its Register for forty years,” said Trust Chief Executive Officer, Brian Scarsbrick.
“The sale decision also appears to have been taken without any prior consultation with the NSW Heritage Division despite Millers Point being listed on the State Heritage Register as a Conservation Area in 1999 and as a Precinct with high social significance in 2003. Additionally 109 places in Millers Point are listed on the State Heritage Register and these places include more than 400 individual dwellings,” said Mr Scarsbrick.
The Trust Advocacy Director, Graham Quint stressed that the Government’s own Statements of Significance for Millers Point say that it “is an intact residential and maritime precinct of outstanding State and national significance, containing buildings and civic spaces dating from the 1830s” and that “the whole place remains a living cultural landscape greatly valued by both its local residents and the people of New South Wales.”
Mr Quint also noted that the 2003 State Heritage Register Listing says “Millers Point & Dawes Point Village Precinct is significant through associations with a community in NSW for social, cultural and spiritual reasons. A proportion of the existing population is descended from previous generations of Millers Point locals, and has fostered a strong and loyal sense of community and solidarity.”
“There must be consultation with the local community and evictions currently being proposed must halt until there has been proper consideration and determination of the impacts of this decision on all of the state and national heritage values of Millers Point – Its historical, social, landmark, archaeological and rarity significance,” said Mr Scarsbrick.
27 March, 2014
For further information:
Contact: Graham Quint,
Director – Advocacy
The National Trust of Australia (NSW)
(02) 9258 0179
0421 428 667
