Picnic puts old Tech site back on the election agenda

WONTHAGGI residents will gather beside the old Tech School site on Sunday November 15 to put its future in front of state election candidates.

The Wonthaggi Old Tech Creative Hub (WOTCH) will hold its rescheduled Picnic in the Park at the corner of McBride Avenue and Watt Street from 2pm to 4pm.

The 1.8-hectare former Wonthaggi Secondary College campus has sat empty since the end of 2019.

WOTCH spokesperson Ross Farnell said it had fallen into disrepair and at one stage had people living in it and vandalising it.

“Our group is galvanised around the idea that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” Mr Farnell said.

“You have such a prime site of land in the centre of the CBD of a town like Wonthaggi; you just do not get those opportunities.

“To see that privately developed or just used for something banal would be an absolute shame.”

The group wants the site to become a creative, cultural and neighbourhood hub focused on making and producing art, not just showing it.

Its flyer calls for a library, maker spaces, a gallery, an artist incubator, recording studios and room for not-for-profits, while Mr Farnell also floated a radio station and video game studios.

“Wonthaggi does need a gallery space, but not taking the whole thing up with a massive regional gallery,” he said.

“There is a real opportunity here for youth employment and a reason for Wonthaggi to be a place people want to visit, which feeds into the tourism economy.

“Because it is the centre of town, let’s have something that doesn’t shut at 5pm most nights of the week.”

WOTCH accepts some revenue-raising activity is likely on such a large site, but wants the entire site kept as Crown land.

“Let’s see some mixed use, but in that mixed use we really want to see all of it being basically public in how that is used,” Mr Farnell said.

“It should not be handed over to private developers or have bits of it sold off.

“This is Crown land owned by the state for the people, and we want to see it stay owned by the state or handed over to local government and used in ways for the community.”

The Department of Education still owns the site, and Bass Coast Shire Council received $632,746 in federal funding in May to plan its future.

It has also become a backdrop for the November 28 state election, with Opposition Leader Jess Wilson standing outside it in May to accuse Labor of letting it fall “to wrack and ruin” and returning in October to promise Bass a technical college.

Labor has since committed $5 million for a TAFE campus at Bass Coast Secondary College, while One Nation’s Bass candidate Nikole Schellekens wants the old site turned into a health education precinct.

Mr Farnell said the picnic was about conversation rather than speeches, and WOTCH had invited all the state candidates.

“We would love to see state candidates discussing their ideas and vision for the site,” he said.

He did not believe any had confirmed yet, though several had shared their ideas.

The family-friendly event is open to everyone, and people should bring food, soft drinks, a picnic rug and, if they like, a musical instrument.

More information is at wonthaggioldtech.org.