Cultural precinct or eyesore?

IN 2018, the State Government announced that the McBride campus of the Wonthaggi Secondary College would be handed over to the council for a cultural precinct once it was vacated.

Five years since the school moved to its new campus, the site sits abandoned and vandalised, an eyesore in the middle of Bass Coast’s biggest town.

Wonthaggi residents are frustrated at the bickering between council and State Government over a two-hectare prime site in the CBD.

The council insists the buildings are beyond repair. They commissioned a report on the state of the buildings but refuse to release it.

Talk about transparency. Bass Coast ratepayers paid for this report. We need to know what the options are. 

A regional gallery perhaps, where we can see our own art collection, as well as the Robert Smith collection, a gift to our community by a noted art collector.

Or a library. We’ve paid $3 million in rent for our current Wonthaggi library since 2012. We could have built our own library for that money.

Some people favour a mixed precinct: cultural, commercial and residential. Maybe we could also add a business incubator, with mentoring and support for emerging local businesses.

Perhaps a public private partnership would work. A developer gets access to some of the site to build apartments and boutique shops (no Big W, no Harvey Norman!) in return for building us a gallery, a library, rooms for community groups and a courtyard garden. 

Or let’s tap AquaSure, operator of the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant, which has evaded rates for the past 12 years, courtesy of the State Government. At an estimated $7 million a year, that’s $84 million in rates that should have gone into council coffers for community infrastructure and services. 

Come on, AquaSure. You’ve made a fortune out of Bass Coast and contributed nothing. Back in the early days you talked about a legacy project in lieu of rates. Here’s your chance. 

There’s no shortage of ideas about what to do on the site. Now let’s make it happen. 

Jon Temby, candidate for Western Port Ward