Contemporary Heritage – Be part of the story

Heritage Funding NSW – Lake Macquarie

Heritage Funding NSW – As extracted from lakemac.com.au:

Owners of heritage-listed properties in Lake Macquarie are invited to apply for annual small grants, on a dollar for dollar basis, to assist with the maintenance of their properties.

Applications for grants up to $5,000.00 will be considered, and priority will be given to applications that:

Involve urgent repairs ie. Keeping water out of buildings,or
Are for high profile buildings which form part of historic streetscapes, or
Are for buildings within heritage conservation areas e.g. Teralba.

To assess whether your property is eligible for a grant, please view:

Local Heritage Places Fund Guidelines

Applications for the 2017/2018 round of the Local Heritage Places Fund close on Monday 17 July 2017.

Get in touch if you need help or advice.

Garden Suburb – Hamilton South, Newcastle, NSW

Hamilton South Garden Suburb

We’re working on a project in Corona Street, Hamilton today – this site is within Hamilton South Garden Suburb Heritage Conservation Area!

This area of Hamilton was developed in the period between 1913 to 1935 and follows the principles of Garden City Design. This urban style developed in Britain from the urban design ideas of Ebenezer Howard in the late 19^th century. It gained favour in Australia and was used to lay out suburbs within Australian cities such as Haberfield and Daceyville in Sydney. Burley Griffen had used these ideas to design the suburban areas of Canberra in 1913. Another prominent architect and planner, John Sulman had a hand in the amendment of Canberra’s design in the 1920s and 1930s and was also responsible for the design of Daceyville. This same architect is responsible for the garden city form of Hamilton South.

Hamilton East has many of the same elements of other garden suburbs in NSW including a curvilinear plan form and main axial streets. The latter include Stewart Avenue, Parkway Avenue, Gordon Avenue and Dumaresq Street. This area was developed for housing following the release of the land by the Australian Agricultural Company.

Hamilton South Garden Suburb

Image source: University of Newcastle Cultural Collections http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/210241385

Heritage Near Me – Funding Opportunities

There is $16 million available in funding from 2016 through t0 2019 in three target areas:

Heritage Activation Grants

The Heritage Activation Grants are available for projects designed to increase public enjoyment of local heritage

Heritage Green Energy Grants

The Heritage Green Energy Grants program provides an opportunity to implement the recommendations from training for an Energy Efficient Business

Local Heritage Strategic Projects

Expressions of Interest are invited from owners and managers of local heritage items, local councils and organisations who are seeking support for projects and programs that will enhance and protect local heritage assets and values

For more information on funding opportunities and support directly to owners and managers of local heritage items, follow this link to the Office of Environment and Heritage: Heritage Near Me

What is a Statement of Heritage Impact?

This website has been prepared to assist people who wish to carry out work that could impact on a heritage item and explains what comprises a SOHI and when it is needed, and the level of detail to be provided.

A statement of heritage impact (SOHI) is meant to convey what the impact or impacts of a proposal would be. When considered along with a policy or plan for conservation and management, an informed decision can be made whether to allow the development to proceed.

– environment.nsw.gov.au

A Statement of Heritage Impact should include:

• why the item is of heritage significance
• what impact the proposed works will have on that significance
• what measures are proposed to mitigate negative impacts
• why more sympathetic solutions are not viable.

Need Help? – Find a Consultant

How should the design of my project deal with these requirements?

A big part of the process is the design work, most of the time the design has already been completed and Council is now requesting justification for the proposal through a Statement of Heritage Impact. This can be straightforward in some cases but can also lead to issues – we very much encourage you to have a look through our design pages and start thinking about Heritage as soon as you can in your project. Not only will this make the approvals process much smoother, but in most cases you’ll also improve the value of your project.

Development of a Heritage Item or within a Conservation Area doesn’t mean your project needs to ‘look old’! The following information is provided by http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/:

The Heritage Council does not advocate the reproduction of heritage forms and finishes; rather, it supports quality new design that is sympathetic in form and finish and is respectful of its context.

What should I do next…or first!?

This website contains as much useful information as we could think of to inform you as Homeowner, Designer or Developer and help you make the most of your project and most importantly…gain approval!

Most people don’t begin researching the Heritage aspects of their project until they’re already part of the way into the approval process and so we’ve broken down the process in our How to Gain Approval pages. Hopefully this will help you identify where you are in the process, and navigate your way through to the information that will be most helpful to you.

Please don’t hesitate to Contact Us if you need assistance or have any questions regarding your Statement of Heritage Impact.

As much as necessary, as little as possible

A common mantra in the Heritage world is as little as possible and as much as necessary and its amazing how frequently this can be applied to a project in order to help achieve a good outcome.

Heritage NSW, the overseer of heritage listings at state level, offers advice to developers state-wide looking to upgrade old buildings.

[Developers should] do as much as necessary to maintain [the building] and keep it useful, but change as little as possible to conserve important fabric,” Chair of NSW Heritage Council Stephen Davies said.

This does not mean change is not possible, but it must be carefully considered… copying of historic detailing is not necessarily required and good modern designs which consider the heritage context may be possible.

– extracted from tenplay.com.au (17.01.17 – article below)

What this approach does best is help provide authenticity. Buildings that have been reused and adapted to suit a new use are often the most interesting, they’re full of character and they work so well because they can’t be replicated. They’re one of a kind, and if designed carefully, retaining original features and complementing them with new interventions, there’s nothing better.

We thought this was a good article and worth reading:

https://tenplay.com.au/news/national/january/should-buildings-past-their-original-use-be-saved-from-the-wrecking-ball

Lost Newcastle Facebook Group

Lost Newcastle

I’ve only relatively recently come across this Facebook group but it’s really a great resource: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LostNewcastle/

Above: Civic Theatre sourced from Lost Newcastle

For anybody researching for historic photos or information around Newcastle it’s really worth checking out this group, reading through and searching material thats been shared in the past and sharing your own information.

Our collective knowledge is amazing and thats what makes groups like this so interesting. So please, check it out!

Heritage Grants for Local Heritage

Funding from your local council

Many local councils in NSW provide small Heritage Grants to assist heritage projects. Check with your council to see if it offers grants through its local heritage fund: ask for the officer who normally deals with heritage matters.

Applications for funding through NSW Heritage Grants are now closed, we’ll be notifying when they reopen.

Heritage Grants Available

Up to $10,000 (ex GST) grant funding per year is available to successful applicants.

Applicants will be allocated funding for both the 2017-18 and 2018-19 year at this funding round unless a council requests otherwise.

Successful applicants that are new to the stream (ie have not received funding in the 2011-2013 to 2016-17 funding rounds) will not be required to provide a matching funding contributions in 2017-18 or 2018-19. This will also apply where a council has amalgamated since April 2016 and one or more of the former councils has not received funding during that period.

Other successful applicants are required to provide a matching funding contribution (ie $1:$1 OEH: council funding).

Funding is limited and applicants will be assessed against the following criteria:

the level of Local Heritage Places Grants funding paid since November 2011 (with preference to new applicants and those that have received less funding)
the number of items, areas and sites listed under Schedule 5 Environmental Heritage of an applicant’s Local Environmental Plan, (with preference to those with a larger number of items) Local Heritage Places Grants Guidelines | 2017-18 to 2018-19 NSW Heritage Grants | October 2016 p 5
the location of the applicant (with preference to applicants from more remote areas) using http://www.spatialonline.com.au/ARIA_2011/default.aspx as a reference.
the socio-economic level of the LGA (with preference to those with a higher disadvantage) using the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Local Government Area Indexes as a reference.

Funding will be notionally allocated to applicants according to those assessments and with reference to the available funding. Consideration may also be given to ensuring a broader/less concentrated geographic distribution of funding across the state.