Momentum is building on a community push to retain Gosford Library after the new Regional Library opens in Donnison St.
Historian Merril Jackson said the Government Architect of NSW (GANSW) directive to repurpose the library within the Gosford Urban Design Framework (UDF) supported the ongoing CBD revitalisation, population growth, future needs of greenspace, open space and quality standalone community infrastructure for Kibble Park.
She said Central Coast Council’s deviation to demolish the modernist, National Trust registered, library building to create a pavement and steps removes the GANSW’s optimal greenspace for Kibble Park.
“This is inacceptable,” she said.
“It undermines the GANSW’s authority, and the Council’s responsibility to protect and preserve local heritage.”
She said previously commissioned heritage assessment reports affirming the library’s significance and heritage value had been publicly withheld by the Council.
Designed by Alan Williams, the library’s quality and built-to-last longevity is accredited to internationally renowned structural engineers of Sydney Opera House, Ove Arup, she said.
Jackson said it was identified within the UDF as a built heritage asset, and registered significant 20th mid-century architecture by the Australian Institute of Architects.
“The library’s construction involved Sydney and Canberra based mid-century architectural trailblazers, and groundbreaking usage of technically advanced architectural and construction firsts in NSW, including and not limited to, the CSIRO scientifically developed structural timber laminates,” she said.
Other mid-century collaborators included mechanical/electrical engineers DS Thomas & Partners, notable building company AW Edwards, timber carpentry experts Hardys Joinery and Hancock Bros (Canberra), and pioneering mid-century concrete artisan, Rinaldo Umberto Fabbro.
Championed under the Liberal Government and supported by Central Coast Regional Development, Jackson said the UDF provided a strategic urban planned vision to increase greenspace and provide community infrastructure to support population growth into the future.
Local historian Kay Williams says Council is “pulling out all stops” to avoid retaining the building.
“Council continues to try not to reveal publicly the very detailed and significant research into this important building’s history by Merril Jackson and the support for the retention and adaptive reuse,” Williams said.
She said Council had overstated the costs of repair and restoration and had not taken steps to directly seek advice from those community authorities that maintained the only heritage services in the community.
She said ratepayers’ money was to be used for a management consultancy firm to investigate what ‘alternative uses’ the building could be put to.
“We don’t need to pay management consultants to find alternative commercial uses that do nothing to promote our identity and the special nature and history of our area,” she said.
“The building must be retained because of its importance at both local and state level and Council should immediately heritage list it.”
Williams said the top level could be used to house the Fossil Fish Collection languishing in storage at the Australian Museum, which was originally offered to Gosford Council by then Premier Bob Carr but was declined.
“The very important Triassic era fossils include a lungfish called ‘Gosfirdia’, named after the city, and most of the fossils were unearthed in a shale quarry near to Gosford railway station,” she said.
“The top floor space would also allow storage and a research resource for heritage documentation.”
Williams said the middle level could provide a Heritage Centre for tourists and residents and literature on the very significant suite of heritage buildings still extant and within walking distance of the building.
“(Council could) even make some money by selling information brochures and conducting tours from this site and working with the extant heritage ferry tours run by Peter Rea,” she said.
“It could also promote and sell copies of locally produced books on our Central Coast heritage by Gwen Dundon and recently many others, and produce and sell heritage postcards.”
Williams said Council could offer funding to authors to produce or publish local studies, as other councils do.
The lower level, which already has kitchen facilities, could provide read and sit-down cafe facilities, she said.
She said Council needed to reinstate its Heritage and Culture Advisory Committee – disbanded by the last Administrator – and it should include the many volunteer groups (in the region).
“It is about time Council addressed its heritage responsibilities by not only retaining the library building but actively using it to widely promote learning about our unique history,” she said.
“It is also essential that the accurate heritage signage information structure in Kibble Park also be retained.”
The Central Coast Community Better Planning Group now has 20 community groups backing an open letter calling for retention and repurposing of the library building.
Council’s feedback survey is open until June 11 at www.yourvoiceourcoast.com/GLB
Terry Collins
I have lived on the coast for 50 years & love the Gosford library building …please wake up council & listen to the people you have been elected to serve ! It would be a shocking waste to knock this building down…preserve it at all cost.