Ongoing media attention and politics seems to be prevailing at New Norfolk about Tasmanians’ Willow Court:
7th November 2023 Media release Derwent Valley Council
Derwent Valley Council has terminated its lease with New Norfolk Distillery, effective immediately.
Council will now arrange inspections of the Alonnah, Occupational Therapy and Carlton buildings, including the exercise yards, to determine the state of the buildings and identify what maintenance works are required in order to make them safe and to prevent any further deterioration.
The outcome of these inspections will help Council consider the options for the future use of these buildings.
Willow Court has been part of New Norfolk’s history for over 200 years and Council is committed to its ongoing reimagining and revitalisation of this important asset. Development of a Heritage Interpretation Plan for the precinct, defines how Council, precinct partners and community stakeholders can communicate its heritage values and sensitively manage Willow Court’s story into the future.
The adaptive reuse and activation of Willow Court has already seen outcomes, such as the multi-million investment into the Corumbene Health Hub on the Avenue, and Sisters’ restoration work on the Ladies Cottage and Nurses Quarters, both currently in development.
Council will continue to seek opportunities that will ensure ongoing funding for the restoration, maintenance and activation of the site over the long term. We will continue to work with other leaseholders and land owners within this historic precinct to secure its future as an asset to our community.
https://www.derwentvalley.tas.gov.au/home/latest-news/statement-regarding-new-norfolk-distillery-lease
Another failed attempt to put ideas into action at the Willow Court Site. The history of the site and the people who have had ideas of it’s repurposing have been long. Unfortunately many ideas have failed to take off. We learnt that this idea for a rum distillery, tasting centre and conference facility was going to employ many locals, both in the construction phase and the on going running. Both haven’t eventuated. On the 7th November 2023 the Derwent Valley Council released the above media release and they have taken back control of Wards C, A and the Occupational Centre.
We learnt that the owner of the Distillery believed that the rent was going to be forfeited as in kind support. We also know that the owners believed that the buildings would be given to the company in kind. We also know that owners of the business believed that the water, power and sewage services would be connected by the council (rate payers) in kind. We also were made aware that the owners secured a 1.2 million dollar grant from the Liberal Government (outside of normal grant practices) and that one of the owners was a liberal Minister’s employee.
What we are not sure about is why the owners believed that the rate payer and tax payers would be funding their business and it’s expansion. This has been an idea and business proposal that follows on from many others who have has a similar outcome for various reasons. The Derwent Valley Council again suggested calling for expressions of interest, but this wasn’t adopted by the council at their December 2023 meeting.
Meanwhile a community group has held a community workshop that was heled to discuss what the community want from their building. The results of this workshop were shared with the council at a workshop. In between that time there has been a number of businesses applying for the use of Willow Court, including Tasmania’s Most Haunted”
A request to have access to the site from the group that started the community meeting was denied. The group call for a cohesive separate governance structure separate from the political influences of elected members of the council. This is a similar set up at Port Arthur, with the Port Arthur Authority. The new group consists of many people from a wide range of professional and business backgrounds with history in heritage, project management and governance to name a few.
The Willow Court Community Workshop group sent this update today:
14 January 2024
An update on the Willow Court Community Workshop.
The WCCW outcomes report was forwarded to the DVC on 5 December. On Friday 8 December, the council’s December meeting agenda was published online. One of the agenda items was the Expressions of Interest for Willow Court. This occurred before the WCCW group had time to present the outcomes of the workshop to councillors.
Group representatives met with the acting General Manager and Mayor the following week where we raised our concerns and it was suggested we could lodge an EOI. As it happened the EOI motion failed as it was not supported by councillors.
The WCCW group presented to the councillors at a workshop on Wednesday 10 January. Our PPT presentation is attached. In attendance were Crs. Justin Derksen, Peter Binny, Sarah Lowe, Philip Bingley, and Matt Hill, and the Mayor. Two councillors were apologies. One councillor officer was in attendance.
One of the main outcomes of the report to councillors was that the WCCW report outcomes be formally endorsed by the council so that we can move forward on the planning from the workshop outcomes, particularly towards an independent management structure for the Barracks precinct and for the inclusion of the co-design aspect of planning for Willow Court.
The council’s January meeting agenda came out on Friday 12 January. It has two items from business operators in the Willow Court Barracks precinct. One from Willow Court Tours (Tasmania’s Most Haunted) and one from the Agrarian Kitchen. These agenda items were prepared by the council before the WCCW group presented to the councillors on Wednesday evening.
Reading the background to each item there is mention of the council being approached at the end of last year, hence the attempt to get up the WC EOI motion at the December council meeting. These Willow Court business operators were aware of the WCCW.
One had been consulted in the early stages of planning and the other attended part of the community workshop.
Should there be any progress on these two agenda items at the council meeting on Thursday 18 January it will indicate the council is happy to stay on its merry-go-round of piecemeal decisions on the future of the Willow Court Barracks precinct, in the complete absence of a long term vision for what the site could be and a masterplan to ensure the site is developed and governed to its full potential, or in consideration of the WCCW outcomes and the valuable input of the many people who gave their time and knowledge to the workshop.
You can read the council’s meeting agenda (Click on Picture) will open in a separate window.
One of the outcomes of the WCCW was the request by participants to tour the council owned Willow Court buildings. The response to our enquiry from the acting General Manager was first that we needed to have a bona fide reason to access the buildings, and on Friday last week his response was that he wouldn’t let us tour the site today unless we had an understanding of building maintenance. He suggested a small group could tour the buildings on that basis to get an understanding of the issues and scope of what is required to make them habitable.
The workshop group will be meeting next week to discuss next steps.
So, the future for Willow Court is still as clear as it was when it first closed in 2000. The opportunity to hear the people and what they want from their site is still not clearly being heard by those whose job it is to manage this site on behalf of the owners, the people of Tasmania.