Heritage gateclosed for operation

MEMBERS of local advocacy group Save Our Station (SOS) have been left disappointed with Heritage Victoria’s decision on how to bring back Lydiard Street’s heritage swing gates.

The State Government department released a permit earlier this month detailing that the street’s more-than 140-years-old heritage gates adjacent to Ballarat Station will not be reinstalled in an operating capacity, but will instead be returned as a replica display.

The swing system was removed after the southern gates were destroyed by a runaway train in 2020, after which boom gates were installed the following year to allow for the crossing to reopen.

SOS president Gerald Jenzen said the decision is only the latest from the Government that is dismantling the heritage fabric of the station precinct.

“The Victorian Government has spent a fortune on unwanted changes to Ballarat Station, and Heritage Victoria has been their accomplice to support the trashing of the precinct,” he said.

“Instead of demanding the Government come up with a comprehensive master plan for how the area should be developed, and how each project might meet modern transport needs whilst protecting the site’s significant heritage, they have allowed the Government to lurch from one ill-conceived project to another.

“[The] announcement that the interlocking gates will no longer operate took no account of the heritage technological uniqueness of the gates, which were the last of their type in Australia.”

According to Heritage Victoria’s Q&A accompanying the permit, it was a V/Line decision that the swing gates can not be reinstalled in an operational capacity due to their not meeting modern safety standards.

The gates were originally controlled via the signal box west of the crossing, but since the early 2000s had been operated remotely from Melbourne.

“Heritage Victoria accepted V/Line’s argument that the gates could not fulfil contemporary safety standards,” Mr Jenzen said.

“They have given no explanations as to why the gates were able to remain in situ for the last 20 years if that was the case, presumably deemed safe until hit by a train without brakes.”

The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) also expressed its disapproval to Heritage Victoria with a written submission in August following an application lodged earlier that year for approval of the gates’ static installation.

Heritage Victoria was contacted but was unable to comment in time for publication.