In a significant milestone for the city, the Goulburn Regional Conservatorium is being handed back to the community.
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NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro visited Goulburn on Monday, May 22 to make the announcement.
He said TAFE NSW is working to transfer ownership of ‘The Music Place, Goulburn’ to the Goulburn Regional Conservatorium,
He also pledged support to preserve the historically significant building.
Mr Barilaro said he had recently met with the Conservatorium’s executive and realised there were question marks surrounding its future because it was a TAFE asset.
“So it was important for them to have confidence in the future – that they didn’t get a letter telling them to pack up in a few weeks,” Mr Barilaro said.
“We are in conversation with the Conservatorium for the long term and we have given a commitment that we want to hand this building to the Conservatorium - that it will go back to the community and we will finalise the details from here.
“You can be sure this building will be the community’s and all the uncertainty around its future will be removed.”
He said the State Government and TAFE had made a commitment to invest in this building and sort out a number of maintenance issues.
“It is a heritage building and a beautiful building for the region, but like many old buildings it has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars to get it to the stage it is today, which is to make sure it remains waterproof and that we protect it further. There is still more work to do in relation to restoring the building.”
He said the State Government is funding identified repairs to help maintain the building, including work that has been done to replace the glass atrium roof with 12mm glass panels above the glass ceiling.
The building was purpose built as a Technical College in 1900 by Walls and Sons and designed by Government Architect, WL Vernon.
“The Conservatorium was built more than 100 years ago and it’s great to see that the community and the Member for Goulburn Pru Goward has championed for its preservation,” Mr Barilaro said.
Member for Goulburn Pru Goward said on top of the significant restorations, TAFE NSW is working to transfer ‘The Music Place’ to the Goulburn Regional Conservatorium.
“The transfer to local ownership will be a great opportunity for the Conservatorium to become even more integral to Goulburn’s music scene,” Ms Goward said.
“I know the Conservatorium has wanted control of its future for a long time and I am delighted that Deputy Premier John Barilaro has listened and has enough confidence in the Conservatorium to hand over ownership.
“It has been a long time coming and is a huge responsibility, but I know the Conservatorium is up to the challenge. This is the NSW Government backing regional NSW and Goulburn in particular.
“This goes back to 2007, when former Conservatorium Director Stephen O’Connell and I went to then education Minister John Della-Bosca because the Conservatorium lived on year-by year lease.
“We persuaded him to change it to a 50-year lease, which seemed like a good deal, but the limitations on it soon became apparent when planning for its future. We have since been trying to persuade the State Government to transfer ownership of it.
“And we now have this commitment today – and the sooner we own it the better, so we can get on with all the things we want to see happen here.”
Known as ‘The Music Place’, the Conservatorium encourages creativity, performance, education and collaboration through its music programs for schools, as well as concerts, master classes and workshops.