The nine-year battle to conserve Kingston's Old Bus Depot is over after the ACT's heritage authority agreed to permanently list the historic structure.
A final decision by the ACT Heritage Council this week noted the significance of the 70-year-old building's fully welded rigid steel portal frames and its historic value to early transport workers and their families.
But the council had twice refused to list the Old Bus Depot building on the Heritage Register, leading to ACT Government plans to sell the site for development.
Last year, The Canberra Times revealed the Land Development Agency proposed to demolish the Old Bus Depot building, sell the site for development and construct a new home for the popular Sunday markets in the same precinct, though closer to Lake Burley Griffin. But in the face of fierce community debate, Chief Minister Jon Stanhope committed to undertaking community consultation before making a decision on the building's fate.
The decision this week was one of seven handed down by the ACT Heritage Council, addressing a backlog of sites being considered for conservation.
ACT National Trust president Eric Martin welcomed the move.
''There was not adequate research into the social impacts of the Old Bus Depot in the other decisions of the Heritage Council not to accept it,'' he said.
''But after a bit of pressure from an appeals process, they were at least receptive to receive more information.''
He said the building's fully welded rigid portal frame was of exceptional interest as the earliest notable example of its kind in Australia.
For more on this story, including Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur's comments on a backlog of applications for heritage listing, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.
Source: The Canberra Times
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