The main administration building at the former Kenmore Hospital in Goulburn. Now known as Kenmore Gardens, new plans have been lodged for its redevelopment. Photo: Leone Morgan.
Kenmore Gardens’ owner has lodged a development application for a 20-lot subdivision facing Taralga Road in Goulburn’s north.
Planning documents say a previous owner of the property, formerly known as Kenmore Psychiatric Hospital, had received approval in 2012 for the subdivision, but did not proceed.
The proposed residential subdivision is around nine existing residential dwellings, together with 11 new intervening lots on the Taralga Road frontage of the Kenmore Gardens site. According to the proponent, nearly half of the proposed lots reflect the existing pattern of existing houses facing toward and accessed from Taralga Road.
The proposed subdivision provides for the retention of six heritage dwellings together with three existing 1960s dwellings.
Chinese investor Australia China International (now known as Kenmore Property Development Pty Ltd), which owns the former hospital and changed the 75-hectare property’s name to Kenmore Gardens in 2016, has lodged the DA.
The latest DA follows a previous one which proposed to demolish a former female patient ward and add 56 residential blocks. As well, it sought to hand over responsibility for internal roads and two sporting fields to Goulburn Mulwaree Council. That was refused in October last year.
The latest application comes amid fears that unless the planning deadlock between the owner and NSW Heritage is broken with a compromise, Kenmore could crumble.
After gaining access to the property from the owner in 2020, meeting the groundskeeper and an architect preparing designs for the future use of Kenmore, Goulburn sketch artist and architectural enthusiast Steve Ayling drew the fine detail of Kenmore’s exceptional buildings in multiple drawings while learning the site’s layers of complexity.
He believes a military-style strategic solution could be found to break the planning deadlock and allow redevelopment to proceed.
Before the latest DA was lodged, Heritage NSW found insufficient justification to allow demolishing Building 18, formerly known as the “quiet and industrious female ward” (and also known as ward 13 and 14).
“The Heritage Council has never supported this demolition, and this was noted in the approved masterplan for the site in 2012,” said a spokesperson from the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
As people lined up to buy sketch artist Steve Ayling’s popular montage of Kenmore Gardens’ exquisite architecture, they revealed their links with the former hospital, either having worked there, played sport there or attended theatre productions. Photo: Steve Ayling.
Heritage NSW noted that the applicant’s Statement of Heritage Impact did not address the impact of the proposed additional 56 new dwellings on the site, particularly on the loss of significant views across Lamina Park, or its impact on potential archaeological sites.
Various plans have been put forward for developing Kenmore Gardens.
In 2019, consultants LFA (Pacific) forecast the potential yield would include 200 residential lots, 98 apartments, two residences, 108-room student accommodation, two conference/function/training centres, and a hotel complex with options for other functions.
Without the Heritage Council’s approvals for the 2024 application, Goulburn Mulwaree Council would not allow any changes of the Kenmore masterplan. As well, the council said there was insufficient information to address flooding and biodiversity impacts.
Until those issues were addressed the council would not consider the owner’s request for Goulburn Mulwaree to take over responsibility for internal roads and sporting fields.
Meanwhile, Goulburn Heritage Group members are distressed at the state of affairs at Kenmore. Members believe the problems began when the NSW Government sold the State Heritage-listed property to private interests years ago with no buy-back provision if agreed work was not undertaken in a timely fashion. The hospital has undergone several changes in ownership since then.
Mr Ayling has spent much time drawing individual buildings, taking in the property’s unique beauty and national and local architectural significance, and noting the Kenmore war memorial and cemetery.
He is aware of the complexity of the site, from utility systems to restoration challenges, balancing heritage laws and meeting new building standards.
“So it is a complex activity which needs close collaboration by all parties otherwise it (Kenmore) will crumble and disappear,” he said.
Building 18, also known as wards 13 and 14 at Kenmore, which the current owners wanted to demolish. The building is protected by NSW Heritage laws. Photo: Leone Morgan.
A retired army officer, he said the military’s clever approach would be to manage a complex situation, broken down to careful, co-operative and achievable phases.
“There’s got to be a way of breaking the deadlock and after all, there has to be a profitable business solution developed. The State Government is not going to bail it out,” he said.
The outcome in the end for a developer would be the need for a profitable, viable business, he said.
