Another heritage versus coal battle looks imminent this time over the future of Ravensworth Homestead.
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Only last week it was announced that Singleton Council will sell Wallaby Scrub Road, built around the same time as the homestead in the 1830s, to the Chinese miner Yancoal.
Both the homestead and Wallaby Scrub Road happen to be located atop substantial coal reserves.
In the case of Ravensworth homestead it is located smack bang in the middle of Glencore’s Glendell Continued Operations Project – which the mining giant hopes will extend the life of their existing open cut for 20 years thereby providing ongoing employment for 300 people at the mine.
If they can gain approval for the mine’s extension Glencore will extract am additional 140million tonnes of coal.
But before all this can happen the company has to find a way to preserve the homestead. Last year Glencore established Ravensworth Homestead Advisory Committee to look at relocation options for the homestead with the aim of preserving the heritage values, provide a beneficial end use that is economically sustainable and enable some form of ongoing public access.
The homestead complex consists of four sandstone buildings – main house, two outbuildings and ablutions block plus a timber cottage.
Glendell mine has been managing and maintaining the property since acquiring the Homestead in 1997. This includes an investment of more than $600,000 in an extensive repair and restoration project undertaken by heritage specialists in 2008/09, as well as ongoing maintenance work.
In a report ‘Hunter Estates’ prepared for the NSW Heritage Council and Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) published in 2013 it says the homestead was designed by architect John Verge for James Bowman.
Dr Bowman, a naval surgeon and pastoralist, established his estate at Ravensworth in the mid-1820s and would eventually die at the property in 1846. It was sold to Captain William Russell in 1847. Capt. Russell went onto own in the vicinity of 30,000 acres in the Hunter Valley. In 1882 the Ravensworth property was sold to Duncan Forbes Mackay who turned the estate into what was described as fine sheep raising land.
The homestead remains relatively intact and has escaped any significant alterations to the original design
In a letter on the homestead from the OEH as part of the planning and assessment process for Glendell continuation project it states that Ravensworth Homestead is one of 19 places identified as a very early Homestead in a Heritage Council comparative study and the Heritage Council NSW has recommended it for nomination on the State Heritage Register (SHR).
OEH thereby provide their advice on the basis that this place is of State significance.
“The proposed relocation of state significant heritage item is not considered appropriate. The current context and setting of a heritage item, like Ravensworth Homestead, are significant values that contribute to the heritage significance of an item and their loss from a relocation is a major impact on its heritage values,” the letter states.
“The proposed relocation has the potential to result in catastrophic damage to the significant fabric of Ravensworth Homestead.
“Adaptive reuse of heritage items of buildings from the 1820s presents challenges and a new use can impact on the heritage values.
“A homestead of the era is likely to have a significant garden with early plantings and the archaeology that will be lost as a result of the open cut mining activities.”
However, having pointed out all the the above issues the OEH then says if it can be demonstrated satisfactorily that relocation of Ravensworth Homestead is the only option to ensure its preservation the Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed mine extension must include a detailed work statement on how this relocation would be done.
Singleton resident and local history enthusiast Lyn MacBain said “In my opinion Ravensworth is not only the Hunter Valley’s but it is part of our National identity; the property’s history and heritage has so many facets and with more to be discovered.”
“I am strongly opposed to removing it from its location, in fact it makes me heartsick to think about another piece of our heritage being lost to the black gold. I have heard there has been twenty million dollars allocated to remove the homestead – well if that’s correct then there is twenty million dollars to preserve it where it is. For heaven sake show some Corporate dignity and leave Ravensworth and our heritage alone.”