Reviving our railway heritage

Reviving our railway heritageAn innovative project driven by the Victorian Government’s VicTrack has brought derelict old buildings back to life, reinvigorating rural townships, engaging the community and attracting tourists into the bargain.VicTrack’s Community Use of Vacant Rail Buildings (CUVRB) program has restored 15 disused rail buildings and opened them up to the community.In May, VicTrack was presented with the HillPDA Award for Government Leadership at the Property Council of Australia / Rider Levett Bucknall Innovation & Excellence Awards.Many station buildings were in a poor state of repair when VicTrack embarked on CURVB. Some were merely shells, while others had been modernised and their heritage values compromised. Expert heritage architects helped restore the traditional features, bringing them back to their former glory, generating local pride and reinstating their valuable role as community infrastructure.General manager of VicTrack’s property group, Peter Chau says the award “recognises how important each restoration project is to people in regional communities across Victoria”. The restored buildings are now being occupied by local groups for a variety of uses, including arts centres and galleries, health hubs, offices and performance spaces.Among them are the Newstead station building and lamp room, along the Lodden River, which has been transformed into a community, arts and business hub with flexible exhibition, meeting, workshop and office spaces.In Clunes, north of Ballarat, the derelict station building has been “beautifully refurbished” and now attracts more than 18,000 people each year for the annual Clunes Booktown Festival. The Beaufort Goods Shed was slated for demolition, but now houses the Lake Goldsmith Steam Preservation museum and exhibits. Meanwhile, the town’s station building is used by the Pyrenees Arts Council as gallery and exhibition spaces, “a great outcome, as previously they didn’t have a permanent home to showcase local artists’ work,” Chau explains.Chau says each project is unique. “The community proposes a use for their station building, and we work with them to make their vision a reality.”CURVBs appeal goes far beyond bricks-and-mortar. “It gives our regional communities much needed spaces – places to meet, socialise and learn new skills. We open each station with a celebration for the community, so people can come together, see their restored building and thank those who made it happen. “Without exception people have been overjoyed to see the work that has taken place, and many have personal memories of when the buildings were used by the railways decades before.”Chau says his team’s biggest lesson has been the importance of partnerships, and “each restoration is a truly joint effort” – one which would be impossible without the support of Public Transport Victoria and the Victorian Government, and “all the local community groups, councils, builders and heritage architects”.”No two buildings are the same, and they all have their own stories to tell, so we have to work hard to get it right.”