Graythwaite | The Threat

The Threat
	Graythwaite has been a victim of almost criminal neglect for the past twenty five years and now the Health Department appears ready to capitalise on this neglect by selling the property with a conservation plan that would destroy its values. Graythwaite was gifted to the State of New South Wales as a convalescent home for sick and wounded soldiers and sailors and, if not needed for that purpose as a convalescent home in perpetuity for "distressed subjects of the British Empire". click image to enlarge The Red Cross ran Graythwaite as a convalescent home from 1916 to 1980 and generally maintained the property quite well. In 1980 it was taken over by the Department of Health to be run as a nursing home. In the twenty five years that the property has been under the auspices of the Department of Health both the old mansion and its gardens have been subject to the most appalling neglect. As regards the mansion itself, the following are just a few of the signs of Health Department neglect: the widows walk around the top of the roof, which was restored by the local historical society in 1979, was removed around 1990 to make way for a couple of solar hot water systems, storm damaged dormer windows have been pulled out and replaced by sheets of galvanised iron, the roof flashings have been allowed to deteriorate to the point where water now pours into the building in a number of points during heavy rain, and the verandah is no longer safe to walk on. click image to enlarge
	As regards the gardens, until five years ago, when local volunteers moved in, almost half the garden was covered by a luxuriant growth of weeds including: asthma weed, small leafed privet, lantana, large leafed privet, African olives, morning glory, crofton weed, broom, purple top, camphor laurel, blackberry and a large number of annual weeds. Despite the very large number of 130 year old fig trees on the site, nothing has been done for years to look after these trees which have been strangled by weeds and which have had their root zones compressed by heavy trucks and the illegal dumping of large quantities of building rubble. Having paid nothing for the site, the Health Department have spent next to nothing maintaining it. Now they think that they have the right to sell it and profit from their abject failure to in any way live up to the promise that Premier Holman made to the Dibbs family back in 1916 to administer the gift in a manner worthy of the great and generous spirit in which it was made. There are a series of steps that the Health Department has to go through before it can sell the property. These include both going to the Supreme Court to break the trust governing the gift of the property and the need to get Heritage Commission endorsement for a so-called Conservation Management Plan (more like a Develop As Much As We Can Plan) for the property. It went down this road in 1994-95, but was stymied by vigorous local opposition and a looming State election. Unbeknownst to the local community or to the Council, the Health Department restarted the process last year. Its disastrous, pro-development, Conservation Management Plan has received Heritage Commission endorsement.
The Conservation Management Plan
	As part of its listing of Graythwaite on the State Heritage Register, the Health Department had to submit a Conservation Management Plan to the Heritage Commission for its endorsement. In reality this is more like a How Much Can We Get Away With Developing Plan. This plan is an absolute disaster, not only for Graythwaite but also for the neighbouring heritage listed property, Kailoa. The plan includes: The building of medium density housing, presumably townhouses but possibly apartments, on what is called the lower terrace, that is the flatter area of the site bounding Union Street which is locally known as the old orchard. The construction of car parking facilities, ancillary buildings etc along the line of fig trees on the southern boundary of the property and along part of the western boundary. The redevelopment of part of the site adjacent to the mansion currently occupied by a large, 1919 hospital building and other structures.
	Specific issues with the Conservation Management Plan's proposals are: The unique potential of a grand Victorian estate being preserved in its entirety would be lost forever. Redevelopment around the mansion would totally destroy the grandeur of its hill top isolation and make it just like any number of old houses hemmed in by money-driven unsympathetic development. The proposal for medium density housing on the old orchard development would not just isolate the site from Union Street and take away a precious area of open space, but the spacious view of the grand estate from Union Street would be lost forever. The historic views of Kailoa across the old orchard would also be lost forever. It is important to note that Kailoa faces the old orchard of Graythwaite, more than it does Union Street. Possibly the most distinctive feature of Kailoa is the view of it across the old orchard from both Union Street and the Graythwaite driveway. click image to enlarge The prosed development around the southern and western perimeters of the property would almost certainly be the death knell for the towering old Port Jackson and Morton Bay figs that were planted along the boundary circa 1875. These trees have already been significantly stressed by compaction of their root zones due to the Health Department failing to stop the builders of neighbouring developments from driving heavy trucks over their root zones and from dumping large amounts of building rubble over their root zones. In short, if these plans were proceeded with, the heritage values of this wonderful and unique property would be all but destroyed.