Future Melbourne Gets Behind Carlton Heritage Review

A pub with a long political history may become part of a mini heritage precinct after the City of Melbourne’s planning committee added is support to the Carlton Heritage Review.

Melbourne Planning Scheme Amendment C405, the Carlton Heritage Review and Punt Road Oval Heritage Review, was supported by the Future Melbourne Committee at its April 4 meeting.

It proposes adding 24 properties to the heritage register and creating three precincts, including the Union Hotels Precinct which would include the John Curtin Hotel, known for its long association with the trades union movement and activism,  as well as several pubs on Lygon Street.

If the City of Melbourne endorses the amendment at its April 18 meeting, it will then be considered by Victorian planning minister Sonya Kilkenny for final determination.

“This is almost the conclusion of a very long process,” Cr Davydd Griffiths said.

“The most important component of this work is that it is about recognising what is important in Carlton as a whole suburb.”

A green ban was imposed on the John Curtin Hotel site after its sale to a private buyer in May, 2022 with the concern that it might be demolished and redeveloped.

The CFMEU, the Electrical Trades Union, the Plumbing and Pipe Trades Employees Union, and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union  advised their members to not work on the site. 

▲ Former Victorian premier Steve Bracks, former opposition leader Bill Shorten and current Victorian premier Daniel Andrews celebrate the life of former PM Bob Hawke. Source: The John Curtin Hotel

Built in 1859, the pub at 27-31 Lygon Street, opposite Trades Hall, was listed for sale in February 2022, prompting concern from the community. 

“It is fantastic to have seen the community interest and outpouring of support that’s taken place over the last year or so to see that place preserved,” Griffiths said. 

CBRE confirmed that it sold the building for less than the asking price of $6 million in May 2022 to an unnamed overseas developer who had plans to continue pub operations in the short term before developing it.

The heritage council has deemed the site to have state-level social and associative significance.

The council proposed that the pub has local level social significance for its association with activism but also historically as a venue for many musicians, particularly First Nations artists who were not able to perform elsewhere.

An example of Japanese brutalist architecture, the Cardigan House Car Park was also proposed to be listed as significant,

As wel, the heritage review panel wanted to downgrade the listing for the Chinese Mission Church, but the council ruled that it should remain listed as significant. 

Similar amendments have recently added many inter-war period buildings to the register, preserving their architecture and history. 

Developers are required to tailor their proposals to conserve and preserve heritage components of heritage-listed buildings on the sites.

The City of Melbourne is encouraging more developers to think about retrofitting and upgrading older office buildings within the CBD instead of demolishing and rebuilding them.

This helps save on rising financial costs for demolition and rebuilding but also allows developers to create more sustainable projects with less demolition waste in landfill and less carbon emitted in rebuilding.

Developers are now turning more to adaptive reuse and zero carbon retrofitting for their projects.