The Goulburn Mulwaree Council Economic Development Committee met to find out more about the plans for the project, outlined by engineers Katherine Armstrong and Maurice Hanrahan from Laterals Projects and Developments in a presentation last Wednesday afternoon.

The objective is to safeguard the national archives collection currently based at the National Museum of Australia and the NSW Government Repository in Western Sydney and will reduce the backlog of storage that needs to be dealt with.

Ms Armstrong said that Goulburn was the perfect location because of its centrality between Sydney and Canberra.

“The case for Goulburn as a storage precinct becomes even more compelling when one adds to the mix Goulburn’s prime location between Sydney and Canberra,” she said.

“It’s excellent road, air and rail links, its lack of congestion, low humidity decreasing utility costs compared to Sydney and Canberra, the availability of existing and potential storage sites, the skilled workforce, and finally its desirability as a place to work and live.”

The results are promising. The business case estimates the costs of collection storage in Goulburn are attractively less than that of capital cities.

Building costs are no more expensive than Sydney and Canberra prices.

The analysis has been assessed on a life cycle costing pursuant to Commonwealth Business Case guidelines. Over 25 years the net present value for the Canberra cost options would be: 1. A retro fit of an existing building at a cost of $51.93 million, with a broader impact of $146m; 2. A totally new building to be constructed at a cost of $59.1m.

Also, the comparisons in prices for the NSW Government Records storage facility would be: 1. A cost of $51.3m in Western Sydney; 2. As opposed to $48.6m in Goulburn.

“City storage facilities can be expensive and, in many cases, have been developed in an ‘ad-hoc’ fashion as collections have grown and are not fit for purpose,” Ms Armstrong said.

“It makes sense to consolidate storage, in a clustered way with the resulting economies of scale and to be able to provide state of the art facilities in line with international standards.

“Increasing digitisation and technological advances in service delivery mean there is less need for items to be located in the same capital cities as institutions.”

She also outlined that the increase in output of $51m translates to an estimated demand for goods and services rising by $38.7m, and the initial impact of around 160 jobs during construction alone.

“The flow-on industrial effects (after construction) could result in the order of 140 jobs, and it is expected that the economic effects will increase progressively as the precinct implements staged expansion increases and building a higher skill based economy that leverages the existing employment base,” she said.

“It is up to us and local governments such as Goulburn Mulwaree Council to both harness and take a leadership role with business and community support, and creating partnerships with the State and Federal governments to push this initiative.

“This is a proposal that could reshape how our national collections will look over the next couple of decades. This will bring enormous benefits to Goulburn and surrounding areas accordingly.”

Mayor Geoff Kettle said ongoing discussions and briefings were in progress with relevant government departments.

“A business case has been prepared for the Goulburn Mulwaree Council by Lateral Projects, and has identified the feasibility of Goulburn as a potential storage precinct for the hundreds of linear kilometres of shelving required to store items that are not needed by major institutions onsite,” he said.

“The study has been undertaken in consultation with leading cultural and research agencies, specifically the National Museum of Australia and NSW Government Records and Repositories being a key focus, as well as other institutions for modelling economic cost comparisons on which it was determined that Goulburn can provide a viable regional solution.”

Ms Armstrong agreed with Mayor Kettle, and said that the next step with Federal and State governments was to develop a detailed functional brief in collaboration with agreed cultural agencies.

“Once the functional brief has been prepared, a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Goulburn storage solution will be sought from the private sector on the basis of best value with the preferred option of a privately owned building. But this building will be leased and owned by the agency,” she said.

“The time frame for the RFP can be from early 2014, with a contractual close in mid 2014, and construction to start from 2015/16.”