Expert Witness Statement by: Peter Andrew Barrett Public ... · I also have a qualification in Architectural Technology from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), and

Expert Witness Statement by: Peter Andrew Barrett Registered Address Level 31 120 Collins Street Melbourne 3000 For: Government Land Standing Advisory Committee Public Hearing (Tranche 22) With regards to: Reduction of an existing heritage overlay (HO100) within the Wyndham Planning Scheme on a site at 1 Tower Road, Werribee. Prepared for: Southern Rural Water (Owner) Instructions received from: Teresa Bisucci (Best Hooper Lawyers) 18 July 2018

1 Tower Road

Werribee

Peter Andrew Barrett Architectural Conservation Consultant

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PREAMBLE

Southern Rural Water, the owner of the subject site at 1 Tower Road, Werribee has commissioned this expert witness statement. This expert witness statement is a peer review, from a heritage perspective, of an earlier heritage assessment of this site, prepared by Lovell Chen, Architects and Heritage Consultants, of August 2017. This heritage assessment is prepared in light of Amendment C227 of the Wyndham Planning Scheme, which seeks to reduce the extent of the existing heritage overlay (HO100) on this site. This expert witness statement does not review other aspects (non-heritage) of Amendment C227 of the Wyndham Planning Scheme.

The heritage assessment contained in this expert witness statement is prepared with regard to the Australia ICOMOS Burra Charter (2013), which is the standard of heritage practice in Australia. In preparing this expert witness statement I have had regard for the practice note ‘Applying the Heritage Overlay’ (Heritage Victoria, Practice Note 1, January 2018). This heritage assessment is prepared with regard to the policies in the Wyndham Planning Scheme pertaining to heritage.

I inspected the subject site on 16 July 2018. In preparing this expert witness statement, I have reviewed various correspondence, reports, public submissions and comments in relation to this matter from Council, Southern Rural Water, Lovell Chen and from residents. Where information contained within that material is relied upon in this expert witness statement, this is footnoted. A number of primary and secondary historical sources were reviewed in the course of preparing this expert witness statement. Where this information is relied upon in this expert witness statement it is also footnoted.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

My qualifications and experience to make this heritage assessment contained in this expert witness statement are outlined below.

I am a qualified architectural historian and heritage consultant. I have a Masters Degree in Architectural History and Conservation from the University of Melbourne.

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I also have a qualification in Architectural Technology from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), and a Graduate Diploma in Planning and Design (Architectural History and Conservation) from the University of Melbourne. In May 2017, I undertook a course in Urban Design (Placemaking) at the Project for Public Spaces in New York.

I am a member of Australia ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), and I adhere to its Burra Charter (2013). I am a member of the Pacific Heritage Reference Group, whose purpose is to provide advice to the President and the Executive Committee of Australia ICOMOS on cultural heritage matters in the Pacific region. Other professional affiliations that I have are membership of the Australian Architecture Association, and the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand. I have been involved in a range of heritage projects within Australia including heritage studies, conservation management plans, and heritage assessments of development proposals of residential, commercial, industrial and public buildings. I have undertaken heritage assessments for municipalities within Victoria including Glenelg, Latrobe, Wyndham, Hobsons Bay and Maroondah councils.

In 2004, I undertook the ‘City of Wyndham Review of Heritage Sites of Local Interest’, which is policy reference document in the Wyndham Planning Scheme.

I am the heritage advisor for the City of Kingston and I work as a heritage advisor for the City of Port Phillip and for Latrobe City Council.

I have appeared as an expert witness on heritage matters at VCAT, Panel Hearings for matters before the Minister for Planning, the Heritage Council of Victoria, and in other forums.

I have worked on heritage projects in New South Wales and Tasmania. I have also been involved in heritage projects in the United States of America. In California I worked on heritage impact assessments and cultural resources studies of districts of Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 2004, I received an exporters grant from Austrade for the provision of heritage services to the United States.

The University of Melbourne, RMIT and other educational institutions have engaged me as a tutor and lecturer in architectural history and design. I have previously been retained by RMIT to assess a postgraduate-level architectural thesis. In 2011, I was invited to speak at the California Preservation Foundation conference in Santa Monica.

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SITE &

ENVIRONS The subject site is situated at the southwest corner of Tower Road and Princes Highway, Werribee. The Princes Highway is a dual carriageway arterial road (Route C109), and Tower Road is a residential thoroughfare. The environs of the subject site are predominantly residential in character, with the exception to this being a real estate agency and funeral director on the opposite side of Tower Road. Both the residential and commercial development in the environs of the subject site is of recent origin.

The subject site is relatively flat. Much of the subject site is obscured from view from the Princes Highway by a grove of mature peppercorn trees (Schinus molle). A lesser degree of landscaping obscures views to the site from Tower Road. Vehicle access to the site is from Tower Road, where a sealed drive extends into the site. The drive branches off to two car parks to the rear and side of the office building. The remainder of the drive extends through a gate in a chain link fence to a yard with two sheds.

Built adjacent to the corner of the Princes Highway and Tower Road is an inter-war State Rivers & Water Supply Commission office building. The front portion, built in 1926, is single-storey and constructed of brick (rendered in places). The building has a hip roof clad in glazed terracotta tiles. A portion of the roof is concealed by a parapet of a projecting front porch. On the parapet is rendered signage with the name “State Rivers & Water Supply Commission”. The porch has been enclosed in recent years. The office building is asymmetrically composed, and is residential in scale and character. At the rear of the 1929 office building is a post-war Modernist addition built of a light timber frame construction.

Inter-war State Rivers & Water Supply Commission office in Tower Road, adjacent to the intersection with the Princes Highway.

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Reinforced concrete water tower, built in 1913-14. The inter-war and post-war portions of the State Rivers & Water Supply Commission offices are visible to the rear of the tower.

To the side of the office building(s) is a circular reinforced concrete water tower, which is visible from across the site and from the site’s environs. It is a relatively utilitarian element, with no architectural embellishment. At its base is a doorway with a timber door. At the top of the water tower is evidence of a former hoist. Interpretative signage at the base of the water tower notes that it has been decommissioned since the late 1960s, when Werribee was connected to the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works water supply.

To the rear of the site, are two sheds of mid-twentieth century origin. The larger shed is built towards the centre of the site, and is of a steel frame and is clad in corrugated galvanised steel cladding. It has a long gable roof clad in corrugated galvanised steel. There are steel frame windows in the side bays of the shed. The floor of the shed is reinforced concrete.

The smaller shed is situated towards the southeast corner of the site. It has a gable roof, and the base of its walls are concrete and the upper portion of its walls are timber frame clad in corrugated steel sheeting. The roof of the shed is clad in corrugated steel sheet roofing. The windows are timber frame.

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The large steel frame shed towards the centre of the site.

The small, composite timber frame and concrete, shed at the rear southeast corner of the site.

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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

This former State Rivers & Water Supply Commission complex post-dates earlier irrigation/water supply initiatives in the district. The Chaffey Brothers irrigation scheme in Werribee of 1888 used water from the Werribee River to irrigate farms in the area. The Canadian born, Chaffeys, based their scheme on their irrigation settlements of Southern California. The Werribee scheme eventually failed, and the Chaffeys would establish other, more successful, irrigation settlements at Renmark, South Australia and at Mildura, Victoria.1 The State Rivers & Water Supply Commission was established in 1905, to administer what had previously been local rural water trusts and irrigation schemes in Victoria.2 The Werribee Irrigation and Water Supply District was established in 1912, channelling water from the Werribee River, and later from Pykes Creek and the Melton Reservoir.3 The concrete water tower on the site was commenced in mid-1913, and was completed around the middle of the following year.4 The purpose of the water tower was to provide a reticulated water supply to the township of Werribee.5 The State Rivers & Water Supply Commission offices were completed in 1926. Prior to this, the Commission was accommodated at the Municipal Offices. A contemporary newspaper report on the opening of the offices noted “the spread of the irrigation area, necessitated the removal to roomier premises”.6 To the rear of the office and water tower, the State Rivers & Water Supply Commission built a hydraulic experimental station, which included a model of Eildon weir spillway. This was built between 1948 and 1951. This is the square element (90 x 80 feet) in aerial photographs of the site (see Figure 5, Lovell Chen, Heritage Assessment). It was the largest hydraulic model built in Australia at that time.7 The spillway and most of the outbuildings of this research facility were removed in recent decades. Water supply to Werribee was transferred to the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works in the late 1960s, and the water tower was decommissioned at this time.8 A channel that was used to divert water from the Werribee River to this tower is still in use to irrigate market gardens at Werribee South.9

1 Peter Andrew Barrett, ‘Building through the Golden Gate’, unpublished

Masters Thesis, University of Melbourne, 2001, p 70. 2 Encyclopedia of Australian Science, ‘State Rivers & Water Supply

Commission’, http://www.eoas.info/biogs/A001520b.htm, retrieved 17 July 2018.

3 Jill Barnard, ‘Werribee’ in The Encyclopedia of Melbourne Online, retrieved 16 July 2018.

4 Werribee Shire Banner, 5 June 1913, p 2. Argus, 25 July 1914, p 17. 5 Interpretative signage at base of water tower. 6 Werribee Shire Banner, 27 May 1926, p 4. 7 Werribee Shire Banner, 25 October 1951, p 3. 8 Interpretative signage at base of water tower. 9 Ibid.

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ANALYSIS

A purpose of the heritage overlay, as defined by Clause 43.01 Heritage Overlay of the Wyndham Planning Scheme, is to conserve and enhance heritage places; and to ensure that new works to a site, or to its environs, do not adversely affect that heritage place. The site at 1 Tower Road, Werribee is currently subject to a heritage overlay HO100 Water Tower and Office. Any proposal to reduce the extent of this heritage overlay will need to be responsive to the recognised heritage values of this place. The subject site has an association with the supply of water to Wyndham for over one hundred years. Initially, this was the introduction of a reticulated water supply to what was then the township of Werribee; the water for that water supply piped to the concrete water tower on this site completed in 1914. Later, the State Rivers & Water Supply Commission, which built much of the irrigation infrastructure of the district, which fostered the development of its agricultural industry, erected their district office on this site in 1926. These two elements remain on the site, and provide a modest level of historical and interpretative value to the history of water supply and irrigation in Werribee. A review of submissions received from local residents, show that the tower and offices are known and valued by the local community as historic landmarks.10 The water tower is relatively unremarkable, and in comparative terms, aesthetically, more distinct concrete water towers are extant across the State. These include a concrete water tower at Surrey Hills (1929), built by the MMBW, which incorporates an arcaded level around its shaft; and at Mildura, its concrete water tower (1957) has an expressive concrete base. Despite its utilitarian character, this concrete water tower is nevertheless of historical importance to Werribee, as part of the township’s first reticulated water supply, and is of representative value as water supply infrastructure in this district (Criterion A and Criterion D). The purpose of this water tower is correctly identified by Lovell Chen in their heritage assessment.11 It corrects errors in earlier assessments, that describe the tower providing water to the irrigation areas (farms) of Werribee South.12

10 Peter Bernhardt, Submission 4; and Ian and Karyn Yeoell, Submission 7,

GLSAC Tranche 22 – Werribee 11 Lovell Chen, ‘1 Tower Road, Werribee. Heritage Assessment’, p 5. 12 Context Pty Ltd, ‘City of Wyndham Heritage Study’, p 339.

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Concrete water tower, Elgar Road, Surrey Hills, built by the MMBW in 1929. Source of photograph: State Library of Victoria Picture Collection.

The State Rivers & Water Supply Commission offices are modest in scale and are residential in architectural character. Their awkward asymmetrical composition, hints it was designed to be easily enlarged sympathetically in the same style. Although relatively unassuming in character, its siting at a slight diagonal to the Princes Highway does give some level of prominence and formality. In addition to its aesthetic value, it is of historical significance as the office of this State Government agency that played an intrinsic role in the development of the district’s agricultural industry (Criterion A and Criterion E). The portable office buildings to the rear of the 1926 offices are of no appreciable heritage value. In the post-war period, further development occurred to the rear of this site, where a State Rivers & Water Supply Commission research and development facility was built. It post-dates by decades another research facility at Werribee, the State Research Farm. That facility was established in 1912 to investigate ways to improve agriculture production,13 and has evolved to become today the Werribee agricultural and Food Technology Precinct.

13 Weekly Times, 29 May 2014, online, retrieved 17 July 2018.

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This rear portion of the subject site, where the former research and development facility was built, is proposed to be alienated from HO100. This portion of the site retains little physical evidence of this former research facility, and the two remaining buildings provide no evidence of their use in that facility. Any heritage values that formerly were associated with this part of the site have now been compromised by this change. Alienation of the land of this former research facility, and the possible removal of its two sheds, will not lessen the heritage value of the water tower or the State Rivers & Water Supply Commission offices. The trees along the Princes Highway boundary are of no apparent heritage significance. A claim that they are ‘another important feature on the site’ in the ‘City of Wyndham Heritage Study’ (1997), provides no indication as to why they are perceived to be important.14 Claims that these trees are part of an avenue of honour, conflict with historical sources that describe the Werribee Avenue of Honour in the Princes Highway being lined with sugar gums.15 A search of the Victorian War Heritage Inventory notes that the Werribee Avenue of Honour is on the south side of the Princes Highway near Tower Road. However, the ‘Veterans Description for Public’ in the Victorian War Heritage Inventory describes the Werribee Avenue of Honour to be lined with sugar gums:

The Werribee Avenue of Honour was planted along the Princes Highway near Tower Road to commemorate the First World War. On 7th August 1918, the town's businesses closed for one hour during the avenue's opening ceremony, which commemorated the first three men in the district to enlist for service: Privates Latham, Conran and McTigue. Plaques for each of the men were placed on the first three trees of the avenue.

Today, several sugar gums (Eucalyptus cladocalyx) on the south side of the Princes Highway, near the Tower Road intersection, may be remnants of the planting but it can no longer be clearly distinguished as an avenue.16

The photograph shown on the Victorian War Heritage Inventory, believed to be remnants of the Werribee Avenue of Honour, shows a group of eucalypts further northeast in the Princes Highway, adjacent to golden Cypress trees (adjacent to the rears of properties in Larose Place). I note from a submission by Peter Bitans, that he believes that it is these Cypresses that are the remnants of the Werribee Avenue of Honour.17

14 Context Pty Ltd, ‘City of Wyndham Heritage Study’, p 339. 15 K N James, Werribee – The First One Hundred Years, p 5, referenced in

Context Pty Ltd, ‘City of Wyndham Heritage Study’, p 245. 16 Victorian War Heritage Inventory, ‘Werribee Avenue of Honour’,

http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/156894 retrieved 17 July 2018. 17 Peter Bitans. Submission 5; GLSAC Tranche 22 – Werribee.

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Image of what is believed to be remnants of a former avenue of honour further northeast on the Princes Highway from the subject site. Source of image: Victorian War Heritage Inventory.

An aerial view of the subject site in 1951. The peppercorn trees are shown extending along the site boundary, set back some distance from the road, and extending at a right angle along the rear boundary of the site (indicated with arrow). Source of image: Lovell Chen, Heritage Assessment.

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It was noted on my site inspection that the peppercorn trees are planted within the site, rather than on the Princes Highway road reservation, and they are not planted at regular intervals as are normally avenues of honour. I also note that in an 1951aerial photograph of this site,18 the plantation of peppercorn trees extends into the site towards its rear at a right-angle. This is inconsistent with avenue of honour plantings, and more representative of windbreaks and/or boundary plantations.

Other trees on the site, including two large peppercorns, are also of no apparent historical significance; and of little appreciable aesthetic significance to the site as they are of no evident formal garden design. All of the trees on the site, in my view, should not be subject to tree controls in the amended heritage overlay.

CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

The proposed reduced heritage overlay is supportable. It will provide a sufficient area around the two heritage elements on this site (concrete water tower [1913-14] and the State Rivers & Water Supply Commission offices [1926]) to retain a setting for them to continue to be appreciated, and to provide a sufficient buffer from surrounding future development. Any future development in the immediate vicinity of the tower should be of a residential scale (single or double storey), so as to retain the tower’s prominence in its environs. The removal of heritage controls on the two sheds and the peppercorn trees, and their potential future removal, will not impact upon the recognised heritage values of the remaining portion of the site, and its early twentieth century water tower and offices.

The proposed reduced heritage overlay area will still meet the intent of the purpose of the heritage overlay, which is to retain and conserve heritage places, and to ensure that new works do not adversely affect heritage places and their significant elements. The water tower and the offices will remain elements in Wyndham that are known and valued by the local community as places of aesthetic and historic value. It is on this basis, that I recommend that the proposed Amendment C227 of the Wyndham Planning Scheme should proceed.

18 Lovell Chen, ‘1 Tower Road, Werribee. Heritage Assessment’, p 7.

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DECLARATION

I have made all the inquiries that I believe are desirable and appropriate and that no matters of significance, which I regard as relevant, have to my knowledge been withheld from the Committee.

Peter Barrett Master of Architectural

History & Conservation (Melb.)

Documents

Expert Witness Statement by: Peter Andrew Barrett Public ... · I also have a qualification in Architectural Technology from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), and