Heritage and Character

Last night I attended the Heritage workshop at Gordonvale; a gathering facilitated by officers from the Environment Protection Agency and the Cairns City Council.

It was good to get a clearer understanding of the state heritage listing process. I had never previously seen a complete list of the places in Cairns on the Queensland Heritage Register so that was interesting. As was the list of places in Gordonvale and Babinda on the Local Heritage List. I took the time to listen to the locals who were busy reminiscing and recalling special childhood places in the Gordonvale, Aloomba and Edmonton areas.

It's important that more people know the places on the list and understand the process of heritage listing and what it means. The consultants were able to dispel fears that a listing means that a building or place can't be changed. The best solution is for buildings to be adapted and used in other ways and there is assistance to enable this to happen.

At the last election my team was really strong on promising that character precincts should be established (character wasn't even mentioned in the Unity team policy document!!) and it's good to see that council officers moved to do this over the past few years. In some cases it was too late, as too many development approvals had changed streetscapes and there were not sufficient old buildings to justify a precinct being declared.

We have lost so much in Cairns; eg, the Barrier Reef Hotel is the sole remaining pub from the renowned Barbary Coast waterfront area. Townsville has done a much better job than Cairns in preserving their old pubs and a Cairns 1st Council will work to preserve what remains of our heritage.