Congratulations to the Save our Sirius campaigners for their courtroom victory in July of this year. They appealed former Heritage Minister Mark Speakman’s decision not to list the Sirius building on the State Heritage Register, refer to my previous article here. The judgement of the NSW Land and Environment Court (Sydney’s VCAT) stated the minister erred in overstating the financial hardship to the state and also in failing to consider the heritage significance and advice from the state and council’s own heritage advisors.
Unfortunately the State have appealed the decision and have reconfirmed their commitment to sell the site so there is still plenty of work to be done. We hope the new heritage minister will do the right thing and approve the suggested listing, we hope that Property NSW (the social housing dept) will reconsider and look to restore the building, we also hope they return the existing tenants to their homes and that the building is maintained as a working piece of history. I’m proud to have supported this campaign and kudos to architect and AIA NSW chapter president Shaun Carter for initiating this movement, you should be very proud of your achievements so far.
