MEMBERS of the Hastings Western Port Historical Society are concerned that one of Hastings’ oldest buildings will be soon be lost to the elements, due to neglect by Mornington Peninsula Shire Council.
The Old Pioneer’s Cottage, located on the corner of Skinner and Herring Streets, was originally in Victoria Street and believed to have been built by the Spositos family in the early 1900’s. The building was donated to the Shire of Hastings in the mid 1980’s, and moved to its current position at that time, and is owned by the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council.
“Over the last forty years, the council has been responsible for its upkeep,” said the president of Hastings Western Port Historical Society, Di Maloney (pictured right). “But over the last decade or more, they have allowed it to fall into disrepair, claiming there is no money to fix it.”
Maloney showed The News pages of records detailing requests for maintenance of various issues, some of which are critical to the building’s structure, many of them never actioned. In June 2022, Maloney emailed shire officers, the CEO and the mayor and deputy mayor at the time detailing the critical state of the building with rotting of weatherboards on the south wall, rusted out spouting, rotting stumps, and a leaking roof. “I don’t believe we got a response to that email, but I can certainly say that no action was taken, despite my pleas,” said Maloney.
In recent months, the situation has become dire, and the society believes it may soon be too late to save the cottage.
“We did have someone come out from the shire. They took one look and said nobody is allowed to enter the building as it is an occupational health and safety issue,” said Maloney. “So now the building, which should be the pride of our museum, sits padlocked, and nobody is allowed to enter.
“We need urgent action. The entire south wall needs to be replaced. And the two windows on the south wall. The weatherboards are all rotten and the precious items inside the cottage are no longer protected from the elements. “We need to keep an old iron bath in the hall to catch water from the leaking roof. In the kitchen, where Shirley Davies used to bake fresh scones for visitors to the museum, now you can see through the holes in the wall to the outside.
“We were promised some good news from the shire, but we have received none. Of course, a plan has been made for a performing arts precinct in the block of land we are on, but we don’t know what part our museum will play in that precinct. “The shire said they were hoping to make the area an historic precinct. We hope that is the case.”
Plans for a performing arts precinct in Hastings (First steps towards a performing arts centre in Hastings, The News 28/8/24) are at initial stages with a “commencement of a preliminary concept design” approved by council but none of the estimated $92 million required raised.
“The cottage will not last until the arts precinct is built. Indeed, it may not even last another year,” said Maloney.
“One bad storm, in its current fragile state, could be the end of it.” The society are calling on the shire to take urgent action to protect and restore the cottage. “The building needs to be repaired to an extent that we can show it off to people. At the moment, it is just a monument to the shire’s neglect of this side of the peninsula.”
First published in the Mornington News – 15 October 2024
