BAW BAW // A REPORT will be prepared by the Baw Baw Shire Council into the option of moving Warragul’s historic railway goods shed from its present location in the Warragul station car park precinct to the heritage precinct in Noojee.
Above: the Warragul Goods Shed at its present home in the Warragul Station car park. Photo: William PJ Kulich.
North ward councillor David Balfour moved a motion in general business at this week’s council meeting calling on the report to be prepared “as a matter of urgency” after consultation with “appropriate stakeholders.”
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If successful, the shed would not be the first piece of rail history to be moved from Warragul to Noojee – an historic steam locomotive was moved from Rotary Park to the small town a few years ago.
Speaking to the motion, Cr Balfour said no groups had shown interest in using the facility since it was moved to its present location as part of the station precinct redevelopment.
“It’s been locked up and caged,” he told councillors.
“We’ve advertised for community interest and not much is happening at the moment, and I think it’s time to take a further step.
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“A wonderful project happening out at Noojee where it could be used as a blacksmith’s shop or something like that.”
While some councillors spoke against the motion, all ended up voting for it.
“It’s not until you try to take something away that people rally to keep it,” Warragul ward councillor Mikaela Power said.
“We need to make sure there isn’t another avenue.”
given its current site, i could see why warragul groups were not jumping up and down for it, why not move it north to a community with less ‘public’ buildings and let that community that can see a purpose for it, use it
I understand $250k was spent on relocating it to its existing site. Leave it and save the money for other community projects.
some of us were of the understanding that council were looking into making a visitor information centre/community hub/bus and caravan stopping point and we have been asking questions for some time as to its progress. Obviously it was never considered which is a waste of an opportunity
Unfortunately this is a classic case of heritage preservation for the sake of heritage preservation. There are heaps of these style of sheds around the state…they aren’t rare…I saw one exactly the same in Port Fairy with a similar dilemma. No one knows what to do with it! In Warragul’s case it’s in entirely the wrong location so holds little interest for a use other than a railway shed [funny that]. As for moving it to Noojee, this would be a waste of money. You could build a purpose built facility for cheaper and as soon as you move it the heritage value is pretty much destroyed anyway. This shed got caught up with the whole station precinct project and now it’s a liability.
Yes, what happened to the Visitor Information Centre project?