Proposed Qr National Train Support Facility Hexham
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
STATEMENT OF HERITAGE IMPACT Proposed QR National Train Support Facility, Hexham NSW STATEMENT OF HERITAGE IMPACT PROPOSED QR NATIONAL TRAIN SUPPORT FACILITY HEXHAM NSW AUGUST 2012 Prepared by EJE Heritage, August 2012 7706-SOHI-003 Page 1 STATEMENT OF HERITAGE IMPACT Proposed QR National Train Support Facility, Hexham NSW TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................. 3 1.1 METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................................................... 3 1.2 HERITAGE LISTINGS ............................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 SITE IDENTIFICATION ............................................................................................................................. 4 1.4 CONSTRAINTS AND LIMITATIONS ......................................................................................................... 5 1.5 ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................................................... 5 2. EUROPEAN HISTORY OF THE SITE ................................................................................................................. 6 2.1 OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................................... 6 2.2 BACKGROUND HISTORY OF THE AREA ............................................................................................... 6 2.3 SECTION A: FARMING ............................................................................................................................ 7 2.4 SECTION B: COAL .................................................................................................................................. 8 2.5 SECTION C: SECONDARY INDUSTRY ................................................................................................ 37 2.6 SECTION D: CHICHESTER PIPELINE.................................................................................................. 38 2.7 SECTION E: HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SITE .................................................................... 39 3. PHYSICAL CONDITION AND CONTEXT ......................................................................................................... 40 3.1 THE SITE ................................................................................................................................................ 40 3.2 THE BUILT ITEMS WITHIN THE STUDY AREA .................................................................................... 40 3.3 RUINS OF DAIRY FARM, MILKING SHED AND SILOS ........................................................................ 42 3.4 RUINS OF THE HETTON BELLBIRD WEIGHBRIDGE HUT .................................................................. 43 3.5 CONDITION ............................................................................................................................................ 45 3.6 SURROUNDING CONTEXT ................................................................................................................... 45 4. HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE .............................................................................................................................. 47 4.1 HISTORICAL THEMES ........................................................................................................................... 49 4.2 ANALYSIS OF SIGNIFICANCE .............................................................................................................. 49 4.3 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE .......................................................................................................... 51 5. PROPOSED WORKS ........................................................................................................................................ 52 6. STATEMENT OF HERITAGE IMPACT ............................................................................................................. 53 7. STATEMENT OF COMMITMENTS/ENVIRONMENTAL MITIGATION MEASURES ....................................... 55 8. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................... 58 9. BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................................ 59 9.1 PRIMARY SOURCES ............................................................................................................................. 59 9.2 NEWSPAPERS ....................................................................................................................................... 59 9.3 SECONDARY SOURCES ....................................................................................................................... 59 10. APPENDIX A: TRAIN SUPPORT FACILITY CONCEPT PLAN ....................................................................... 62 11. APPENDIX B: HERITAGE BRANCH WEBSITE DATA ................................................................................... 63 Prepared by EJE Heritage, August 2012 7706-SOHI-003 Page 2 STATEMENT OF HERITAGE IMPACT Proposed QR National Train Support Facility, Hexham NSW 1. INTRODUCTION EJE Heritage has been commissioned to provide a European Heritage Assessment and subsequent Heritage Impact Statement for the proposed development at Hexham of a Train Support Facility by QR National. The European historical research originally prepared by Rosemary Melville of Hunter History Consultants. David Campbell added material concerning mining, railways, dairy farming, the Brown family and social history, and incorporated other information concerning more recent developments. This Statement of Heritage Impact was prepared by EJE Heritage. The project team consisted of: Barney Collins – (Director) Conservation Architect Shea Hedley – Environmental Consultant David Campbell – Heritage Consultant (August 2012 Revision) Track diagrams are copies by Brian Andrews of material accumulated by him over a lifetime of research. His Coal, Railways and Mines: the Story of the Railways and Collieries of J. & A. Brown1 is the definitive study of this fascinating industrial enterprise; those with family connections to the subject will long remain in his debt. 1.1 METHODOLOGY This report has been written in accordance with the guidelines for Assessing Heritage Significance and Statement of Heritage Impact as issued by the NSW Heritage Office, and the Australia ICOMOS Burra Charter (1999). 1.2 HERITAGE LISTINGS The site and buildings are not listed as individual items of heritage significance within any statutory planning or heritage instrument, nor are they located in a heritage conservation area. Instruments searched in determination of this include the Newcastle Local Environmental Plan 2012, Schedule 5, and the following provisions of the Heritage Act 1977 (NSW): State Heritage Register, Interim Heritage Orders, State Agency Heritage Registers, and orders made under the Heritage Act 1977, Sections 136 and 170. The Minmi to Hexham Railway is listed as an item of environmental heritage in the Newcastle Local Environmental Plan 2012, (LEP 2012) Schedule 5, Item 332. It is listed as having Local significance. It is not contained in the State Heritage Register, and is, therefore, not protected as such. It was previously identified as having State significance in the Newcastle Local Environmental Plan 2003 (repealed). It is submitted that the two extant but ruinous structures at Hexham should each be considered as having Local significance. Hexham railway station and the original Pacific Highway truss bridge over the Hunter River at Hexham are also listed as Heritage Items within LEP 2012. The site is listed on the Register of the National Trust (NSW); this listing is extracted as: 1 Redfern: Australian Railway Historical Society, NSW Division, 2004. Prepared by EJE Heritage, August 2012 7706-SOHI-003 Page 3 STATEMENT OF HERITAGE IMPACT Proposed QR National Train Support Facility, Hexham NSW Item Name Richmond Vale Railway, including Hexham Locomotive and Wagon Depot with loco shed, amenities block, building sign, water columns, coal loading facilities and wagon repair sheds, all existing tracks, wayside huts, tunnels, bridges, cuttings, formations. Building Material Steam locomotives, air hopper wagons.2 This listing was made before the closure of the Richmond Vale Railway in 1987. Extant infrastructure now includes No. 1, No.2 and No. 3 tunnels, the Surveyors Creek trestle bridge and abutments, the Wallis Creek trestle bridge and abutments, the Control Cabin, Bath House, cuttings (some partially filled) and formations. The South Maitland Railway ‘10 Class’ locomotives have long since been moved off site, their engine shed demolished. The reference to “air hopper wagons” should actually refer to non-air braked hopper wagons, hundreds of which were once to be found at Hexham and across the coalfields of the lower Hunter Valley. These consisted of wooden hoppers, each of which tapered to a discharge door at the bottom, carried on steel or timber underframes, which could be detached and lifted by cranes over ships’ holds, into which their contents were then discharged. None of