Millicent Spencer
The recently relocated Wollert Church has left the local historical society “without a home”, after it was unsuccessful in acquiring the building for its proposed community museum.
Whittlesea Historical Society vice president Bruce Batten said it was “disappointing” the group didn’t win the tenancy of the 145-year-old church.
“I believed it was supposed to be for the community to share … we were well and truly on those guidelines,” he said.
“You build up hopes and you think you’re in with a shot.”
Mr Batten said the group proposed to relocate the church to the Whittlesea Showgrounds and turn it into a museum for the community to engage in their shared history.
“We were going to undertake a joint project if we were successful – the Agricultural Society was going to use it for the show weekend and we were going to deck it out with our historical collections,” he said.
“At present all [of our collections] are under people’s beds [so] the community don’t know what we’ve got.
“We can’t put any of it on display … we can only bring it out if we get invited to put it on display at a special event [but] that’s only temporary.”
As reported by Star Weekly, Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV) acquired the original church site as part of the Epping Road Upgrade and preserved the building before passing it on to Working Heritage to manage. The church has been relocated to the Carome Homestead in Mernda, which Working Heritage currently manage.
Working Heritage chief executive Ross Turnbull told Star Weekly the church will be available for the community to hire and more details, including the date of an opening ceremony will be revealed in the coming months.
“We envisage the church will be used for the local community who will be able to hire it at an appropriate community rate,” he said.
A MRPV spokesperson said their role was to safely relocate and restore the church before passing it on to Working Heritage to manage.
“Major Road Projects Victoria is proud to have relocated and restored this historically significant church which will be used as a community space for generations to come,” the spokesperson said.
MRPV confirmed Working Heritage was selected for a number of reasons, including their experience in managing and conserving heritage buildings, their commitment to allowing ongoing community use of the church, and their role as the current manager of the Carome Homestead.
MRPV confirmed Whittlesea council endorsed the decision.
Mr Batten said he would have liked to see more community consultation before the decision was made.
“Everyone had preserving the history of the church in mind [so] we thought we had a chance because of what we were going to do with it (turning it into a museum),” he said.
“MRPV maybe should have had a meeting with the competitors so we could voice our opinion on what we were going to do with it.
“It’s not the first disappointment for the Historical Society, we’ve had a hell of a lot, but we just hope one day we will have a permanent location.”
