City’s cottage rebuild request knocked back

THE City of Greater Geelong is seeking financial help to rebuild a historic bluestone cottage in Marshall, but the Victorian government will not fund the works as part of the Barwon Heads Road duplication.

Following a community campaign to save McAteer’s Cottage, the 1860s-era building was carefully dismantled in 2021, with Major Road Projects Victoria storing the salvageable materials at nearby Marshall Reserve.

The city wrote to the Victorian government in March of this year asking it to reconstruct the cottage, but according to the city, Minister for Transport Infrastructure Gabrielle Williams wrote back on August 16 to refuse funding, stating “the reconstruction of the cottage is outside the scope of the upgrade” and that MRPV would stop storing the cottage materials.

Geelong mayor Stretch Kontelj said the decision was extremely disappointing and a blow to the members of the community who had fought hard over many years to preserve the historical asset.

“The community fought to preserve this important cottage and now the government has told them that it wants to walk away from it. It’s not good enough.

“The cottage was removed by the Victorian Government with the clear community understanding that it would be reconstructed at another location. They need to follow through on that.”

“We will continue to advocate on behalf of the community for the cottage’s restoration and hope to work positively with state government to find a solution to fund the restoration.”

The city’s chief executive officer Ali Wastie recently wrote back to Ms Williams, stating the city advocated on behalf of the community to ensure the cottage could be relocated and rebuilt in the future by the Victorian government.

“The city has demonstrated its commitment to the project by providing land proximate to its original location for the Victorian government to rebuild the cottage in line with community expectation.

“The rebuild should be part of the scope of the Stage 2 works and I ask you to confirm your commitment to the future of the cottage as a matter of urgency.”

It is not clear how much rebuilding the cottage would cost, and a Victorian government spokesperson did not provide details when asked.

“Big Build Roads has worked closely with City of Greater Geelong to ensure the bluestone cottage materials were carefully dismantled, recorded, and stored for potential future use,” the spokesperson said on Wednesday this week.

“We will continue to work with the City of Greater Geelong to find a pathway forward for the future use of the cottage.”

Stage 2 of the Barwon Heads Road duplication will cost $318 million and is jointly funded by the Victorian and federal governments.