Descendants of one of Mernda’s pioneering families fear an historic Mayfield home is being left to rot as Woolworths stalls on plans for Mernda’s town centre.
The Mayfield homestead was built by Scottish migrant Moses Thomas in the 1850s. The engineer, carpenter and stonemason established the Mayfield Presbyterian Church, a school, dairy farm, flour mill, bakery, grocery store, butter factory and blacksmith shop in the suburb, then known as Morang.
The homestead was kept in the family for a century until it was sold to the Petersen family.
More recently, it was sold to Woolworths’ development arm, Fabcot, as part of a 25-hectare block designated as Mernda’s future town centre.
Woolworths plans to use the site to build a $100 million shopping centre with 80 mixed-use shops, two department stores and two super- markets, one of which it will occupy.
A planning application for development of the first stage of the shopping centre was lodged with Whittlesea council in January last year.
But Woolworths is now considering options to redesign the layout to include integration with the proposed Mernda train station, which would be part of the new town centre.
The 165-year-old homestead has been left to the elements.
Neil Johnson, a descendent of Moses Thomas’s second-eldest son, John Grierson Thomas, and organiser of the Friends of Mayfield Farm group, said the house had lain dormant for years. “While they can’t bulldoze it they can let it go through inaction,” he said. Mr Johnson said the house’s original fireplaces, mantle pieces and some of the timber floorboards had been removed, diminishing the historical integrity of the homestead.
We’re concerned about it’s viability,” he said. “If it’s torched by fire, they’d be let off the hook.”
Whittlesea planning and major projects director Steve O’Brien said Mayfield Farm was listed under the council’s heritage overlay, which meant a permit was required for its demolition or any major alterations.
“The town centre development plan requires that Mayfield farm is integrated with the town centre and recommends restoration of the heritage elements on the site,” he said.
A Woolworths spokesman confirmed the company was in the process of reviewing its planning application. He said the condition of the farm was unchanged from when the company purchased it.
The spokesman said it was likely the Mayfield farm area would be transferred to the council as public open space.
Pending confirmation of the company’s revised permit, he said Woolworths would like to be on site by mid-next year.
Three historic Mernda properties were destroyed by fire in October. Two of them were more than 100 years old.
