Royal Park Protection Group Inc
MEDIA RELEASE
Friday 24 October 2003
GAMES MINISTER SANCTIONS HERITAGE VANDALISM ON VILLAGE SITE
Late today the Royal Park Protection Group discovered that Games Minister Madden has sent in the bulldozers, in the style of that famous redneck the former Queensland Premier Jo Bjelke Petersen, to flatten one of the important buildings of the Royal Park Hospital heritage precinct. The site has been chosen for the so-called Games Village, which conveniently provides the excuse for a massive private real estate development the size of a new suburb.
Julianne Bell Royal Park Protection Group comments:
"The Minister has moved fast to demolish one of the key buildings of the whole historic Royal Park Hospital complex, which is an irreplaceable part of Victoria’s architectural legacy. We regard this as a blatant move by Minister Madden to pre-empt the decision by Heritage Victoria, which is shortly to hear an appeal by the Royal Park Protection Group and the National Trust on the future of the buildings. We have applied to have the historic Royal Park Hospital included on the State Heritage Register of historic buildings and so protected against State sanctioned vandalism of the type we have seen today. It is unthinkable that these nationally recognised buildings should be damaged or disfigured in the process of building a Games Village for a two week sporting event"
"It shows also that in making this move the Bracks Government holds the community in complete contempt. Only last Monday the Minister met a Royal Park Protection Group delegation at Coburg Town Hall as part of the "Cabinet comes to the Community". He failed to mention his demolition plans when the future of the heritage buildings was discussed. This reveals this community consultation as a sham."
RPPG has worked to have the Royal Park Hospital – an important part of our architectural and social history - protected and retained for future generations and is concerned that public land and public assets should be given away so readily by the Bracks Government and transferred into private ownership. RPPG has called a Parks Protest public meeting for 1 pm on Sunday 2 November at the gates of the Royal Park Hospital in Park Street to protest against this very thing. We will launch the coalition for Protectors of Public Lands with the call "Keep Public Lands in Public Hands".
MEDIA CONTACT: Julianne Bell RPPG Convenor 98184114 or 0408022408 www.royalparkprotect.org.au