By Brendan Rees
Casey Council has decided not to take a 116-year-old building off the Anglican Church’s hands which is looking at ways to maintain its preservation.
The heritage-listed timber building will remain in Peel Street within the Berwick Anglican Church complex after Casey Council administrator Noelene Duff rejected a proposal from the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne to relocate the disused building to the Berwick Cheese Factory, which is on crown land.
At councils’ 5 May meeting, Ms Duff rejected the proposal saying there was “quite a complex set of circumstances” regarding the site.
The diocese wanted council to assume ownership of the former Sunday school building as ongoing maintenance costs could no longer be borne by the Berwick Anglican Church.
Ms Duff agreed with council officers’ recommendation to not support the proposal to purchase nor the relocation of the building which she described as “not suitable”.
“I’ve noted in particular the concerns raised by council’s heritage and property’s teams,” she said.
“I note further for the purpose of history that this was a councillor initiated nomination included in the council’s adopted budget last year and in the strategic resource plan with a sum of $100,000 to assess the relocation of the building.”
The building, which was built in 1904, is heritage listed under the Casey planning scheme and part of the Christ Anglican Church complex consisting of a 144-year-old brick church.
According to council reports, the building has been “significant” for the Berwick district Anglican community for more than a century and “has importance for its associations with a large number of prominent local families”.
The reports also revealed the diocese believed the building was situated “a distance” from the main church – with its orientation fronting away from the main church building, making it “non-compliant with current legislative requirements governing the protection of children”.
Berwick Anglican Church historian Neil Lucas said the church had accepted the council’s recommendation but would continue to “look at options” to ensure the building’s preservation.
“If the council doesn’t want to take it on then we’ll have to work out what’s next,” he said.
But he said the question still stood as to how the church would provide future maintenance costs for the building.
“From the church’s point of view we believe that it’s important that that heritage building be retained and maintained.
“We are looking at the best way of achieving that.”
