Above is a podcast recorded about 2007 where the Valley Vision Project Officer, Ian Brown conducted a tour of Willow Court. Valley Vision which was set up by the Derwent Valley Council. Valley Vision had plans for the site and did a lot of the groundwork that allowed for the current activities onsite.
Valley Vision were about for nearly ten years and were unsuccessful in finalising the vision for the site before being disbanded by the Derwent Valley Council in 2009-10. It was interesting to note that the Councillors who disbanded Valley Vision also failed to complete any vision for the site. Some of the plans from Valley Vision included community use areas which were similar to the proposal recently put forward by the Friends of Willow Court. Other plans were for some art works to be returned or loaned from the Cunningham Dax Centre Museum, attached to the Melbourne University in Victoria.
Valley Vision were also responsible for the Living In – Living Out exhibition which celebrated the worker’s throughout the decades in the hospital. Podcasts from the exhibition can be found on the Multimedia\audio page. Ian refers to “Tony” in the podcast, Tony is Tony Nicholson who was the Mayor\Local Historian at the time and who was also passionate about the site’s history and how that could be respectfully told to future generations.
.