SOME of the most outstanding new works to old properties in the region have been highlighted as part of the inaugural Tamworth Heritage Festival in April.
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They range from work on an old tobacco kiln down the Paradise end of the banks of the Peel River, to wonderful renovated verandahs on stately old family homes and heritage signage at the front of a butcher shop in the main street of Manilla.
A crowd of over 100 people took high tea on Thursday as part of the salute to our historical stories in one of the most celebrated of iconic historic landmarks, the Tamworth Town Hall, to see the newest of old projects acknowledged and promoted.
Of course, the town hall is celebrated throughout national history circles as one of the most outstanding architectural tributes built and opened in 1934 as a living monument to the local World War I service records of so many. Among the speakers for the afternoon events were historian Dr Jonathon King, whose Tamworth connections go back to family firsts, and his great grandfather Philip Gidley King, a superintendent with the Australian Agricultural company.
The company established Goonoo Goonoo Station in 1834, and King didn’t arrive there until about 20 years later, but he significantly built a weekender, now Calala Cottage, in Denison St when it was part of that huge tract of AA Company land.
The company originally had some 313,298 acres centred on Goonoo Goonoo, stretching along that side of the Peel from Nundle to Attunga.
The visit by heritage architect Sean Williams, an associate with the Sydney-based firm TKD Architects, as a keynote speaker for the day, added a great contemporary touch to the old landmark story.
Williams is working for the present station owners, the Haggarty family, on what’s been estimated to be a near-$5 million restoration, renovation and conservation project, which is returning the homestead and some of its most charming buildings to a new life as a functions and events centre, restaurant and accommodation facility.
There’s been some very public and high- profile support for the development.
“I encourage the community to support the fantastic work that is currently being done to honour, protect and preserve the beautiful history of the station, because it really is part of our national heritage,” Dr King told this week’s festival crowd.
In his address, Williams outlined the project and spoke also of its challenges and achievements. The project hasn’t been entered in this year’s awards – not just because of the criteria timelines – and there’s no public undertaking so far from the owners about next year, but you might expect that if they don’t, they will be encouraged by others to do it.
It might just be the most outstanding heritage project we’ve seen in a long while and an odds-on entrant.
But for 2016, the awards have shone a spotlight on lots of smaller, yet significant, preservation projects, particularly showing up some of the smaller villages and the lengths and legacy they’ve contributed to local places.
At Manilla, businessman developer Rodney Sevil won one gong for his work to install heritage signage at the front of his butcher shop.
And the local Manilla Matters community committee was recognised for the work on the local town clock.
The prolific researcher and historian, Lyall Green was acknowledged with a posthumous award for his contribution to heritage.
Mr Green, acknowledged as the father of history for Tamworth for his 60 years of work documenting all that has gone before, died in February this year, just seven weeks after celebrating his own historic milestone –turning 100.
The pinnacle award, the Warren Newman Memorial Award for Contribution to Heritage, was awarded to John Vickery for his work with the Tamworth Historical Society and the Tamworth Regional Film and Sound Archive.
Cr Juanita Wilson, the chair of the newly formed Heritage Working Group, said the awards were important and helped acknowledge and encourage community and commercial participation in preserving the region’s history.
“We are overwhelmed with the support the Heritage Awards received this year and we hope that, in seeing the efforts of the community to participate in restoring and preserving our heritage, others may get involved,” Cr Wilson said.
“Often people don’t realise the significance of what they have. There could be an obsolete building sitting on a property that seemingly has no value, but it might be very significant to the region’s history,” she said.
The working group’s aim was central to helping identify those things.
AWARD WINNERS 2016
Contribution to Heritage Posthumous award to Lyall Green
Accepted by Tamworth Historical Society
Warren Newman Memorial Award for Contribution John Vickery
Conservation Commercial
Nominations: 83 Jenkins St, Nundle; 87 Queen St, Barraba; 99 Queen St, Barraba; 108 Manilla St, Manilla; 195 Manilla St, Manilla; Kootingal Hotel, Gate St; 209-213 Manilla St, Manilla; CH on Peel, corner Peel and Brisbane streets, Tamworth; and Red Embers Restaurant, 73 Kable Ave, Tamworth.
Winner: Rodney Sevil for 195 Manilla St – Manilla Meats.
Highly Commended: Kerrie and Neil Smith, 99 Queen St Barraba – Babes in the Bush, and Mark Delahunt for 83 Jenkins St, Nundle – Jenkins St Antiques and Fine China.
Conservation Community
Nominations: Barraba Library; St John’s Anglican Church, Tamworth; House with No Steps, Tamworth; Manilla Museum; Tamworth Powerstation Museum; Calala Cottage; and Manilla Town Clock. Winner: Manilla Town Clock Highly Commended: St John’s Anglican Church Tamworth and Tamworth Powerstation Museum.
Conservation Residential
Nominations: 57 Strafford St, Manilla; 30-32 Darling St, Tamworth; 45 Bourke St, Tamworth; 125 Upper St, Tamworth; and Bon Accord, Oxley Highway, Bective.
Winner: Julie and Paul McNamara, 125 Upper St, Tamworth. Unique Achievement in Heritage King George V Ave Tobacco Kiln – Mark Walters.
Research and Investigation Analysis
Nominations: Journey through Loomberah district and Soldiers in Slides – WWI Ison’s Collection. Three late nominations ineligible.
Equal winners: Loomberah District 1909-2013, Karlee Tongue and Tamworth Film and Sound Archive for its Soldiers in Slides collection.
Education, Interpretation and Community Engagement
Nominations: Goonoo Goonoo Oral History; Powerstation Museum website; Journey through Loomberah District; Powerstation exhibition; and Cultural Tours with Len Waters.
Winner: Tamworth Regional Library for its Goonoo Goonoo Station project.
Highly Commended: Len Waters Cultural Tours and Tamworth Powerstation exhibition.
Heritage Tourism Precinct
Nominations: Powerstation Museum website; Goonoo Goonoo Oral History; and Pig and Tinder Restaurant at 429 Peel St, Tamworth.
Winner: Powerstation new website.
