What’s happening?
Did you know there is a proposal to demolish the iconic, heritage listed Corowa Hospital Nurses' Home on Guy Street? It was announced by the new owners, Corowa Medical Centre in the local press on the 12th February 2020.

Have your say! Sign up to our community petition to Federation Council to:

1. Protect our heritage listed Corowa Hospital Nurses’ Home building from demolition!
2. Work with the building’s new owners - Corowa Medical Centre and their developer - Healthcare Projects Australia, to create a sympathetic heritage development, that delivers a ‘win for heritage’ and a ‘win for new medical facilities’.

Did you know?

• The Government Architect responsible for the iconic Nurses' Home was Cobden Parkes, the son of Sir Henry Parkes - The Father of Federation; linked to Corowa’s Federation story and Australia’s nationhood.
• Sir Henry Parkes initiated the introduction of nurses from England to Australia trained by Florence Nightingale.  
• Cobden Parkes (Knight Commander of the British Empire for services to architecture) was one of four eminent judges on the international design competition panel, who selected the design for the Sydney Opera House.  
• Cobden Parkes was responsible for giving support to the extraordinary design of Jorn Utzon, designer of the Sydney Opera House.
• The Nurses Home building helps tell the unique and important story of country women and nursing care in the region.
• The Federation Council’s own independent heritage report March 2020 says: “That the purpose of the heritage listing is to prevent demolition."
• Healthcare Projects Australia has been involved with the Bendigo Hospital redevelopment, that successfully resulted in many of their heritage buildings being conserved and repurposed for medical facilities. Why not Corowa?    
• A founding member of the NSW Local Government Heritage Program and Order of Australian recipient for Heritage Conservation in NSW, who made the trip from Sydney to see the Corowa Nurses' Home for himself recommended it as: "Worthy of preservation". 

Heritage details?

• 53 Guy St Corowa is listed on the NSW Government’s State Agencies Heritage Register as having heritage significance.
• The Nurses' Home, Guy St site is in the Federation Council’s Local Environmental Plan heritage schedule (which the National Trust of NSW confirms, typically applies to the entire lot, extending to the boundary of the land).
• 53-55 Guy St Corowa is listed on the NSW Department of Planning Portal as having heritage significance.
• The Nurses Home site’s heritage status was listed in the contract of sale provided to the new owners, before it was sold at auction (November 2019).  
• Conserving our heritage provides numerous environmental, economic, individual and community benefits (as outlined by the Heritage Council of NSW.)

What's the issue?
The new owners are aware of the Nurses' Home site’s heritage status, as shown in the contract of sale: “Land contains a heritage item - Yes”. Why then, are they still proposing to lobby planning stakeholders to demolish it?

If heritage conservation wasn’t part of their new medical facilities proposal why didn’t the new owners select a greenfield site instead? Land scarcity is definitely not an issue for Corowa. The scarcity and conservation of our heritage is.

Buying a heritage property brings with it heritage obligations. It’s a reasonable assumption that the Nurses' Home, as a heritage listed site would call for a development proposal that was sympathetic to conserving and repurposing the building, not one calling for its demolition.

So what?
It would be a concerning precedent for our community to have the new owners and their developer lobbying planning stakeholders to have our heritage sites delisted and demolished, simply because they may have become aware of their heritage obligations after purchasing a property and not before. Or have the new owners been misinformed and told they don’t need to worry about the Nurses’ Home site’s heritage status?

Now what?
“Local councils play an important role in heritage management by identifying, assessing and managing heritage places and objects in their local area. All local councils are required to identify items of local heritage significance in a heritage schedule to the local environmental plan” - source: NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.

A Federation Council who prides itself on Corowa’s links to the ‘Parkes’ name that quirkily appears on the building's foundation stone, may like to ponder a quote by the architect’s father, Sir Henry Parkes - The Father of Federation: “In one hand I have a dream, and in the other I have an obstacle. ...Tell me, which one gets your attention?”

Our petition:
We petition the Federation Council to protect our heritage listed Corowa Hospital Nurses’ Home from demolition; and to work with the new owners and their developer to create a sympathetic heritage development, that delivers a ‘win for heritage’ and a ‘win for new medical facilities’.

Thank you for your support to Save Our Heritage!

For more details check out our Facebook page: Save Our Heritage Corowa