Two buildings owned by the Greek Orthodox community of Brisbane will be protected under a Temporary Local Planning Instrument (TLPI) approved by Council this week, Neighbourhood Planning and Development Assessment Chairman Amanda Cooper said.
The decision came after the application was logged by the GOC on April 19 for demolition of the South Brisbane sites – 22 Browning and 34 Russell streets.
Cr Cooper told Neos Kosmos the draft TLPI would protect 411 Brisbane residential buildings constructed prior to 1911 until the draft new City Plan comes into effect.
“Residential homes built before 1911 can only be demolished if they are found to be structurally unsound. This is in recognition of their architectural characteristics and the limited number of properties that remain in Brisbane,” Cr Cooper said.
The move to protect pre-1911 residential buildings is part of developing the draft new City Plan.
President of the Brisbane GOC Jim Georgiou told Neos Kosmos a demolition application has been submitted, but not for pre-1911 GOYA house, as was reported by Brisbane Times Online earlier this week.
The article “Greek community’s traditional home under threat” (07/05/13) suggests that the Greek community of Brisbane – owners of Hellenic House – have applied for the demolition of four tin and timber properties on Russell and Browning streets, including Hellenic House, “traditional home of Brisbane’s Greek community”, and GOYA House.
In its media release earlier this week, the Greek community stated it is considering options for the redevelopment of the site at the corner of Russell Street and Browning Street. Whilst this development may include a demolition of Hellenic House, the Greek community stated it was conscious of the impact on the elder members who use the premises. For that reason, relocation options are being considered at other sites.
President Georgiou said to Neos Kosmos that GOYA House was not the subject of demolition in any application before the Brisbane City Council.
He also said that misleading information was published by the Brisbane Times Online, as the Hellenic House mentioned in the article is not a grand meeting place of the Greek community in Brisbane, but “a kafeneio”.
“It was a Greek school and Sunday school going back 45 years ago, up until the time when the new Greek memorial school was built next to the church. It was at that point it became a kafeneio. Not many people that frequented there are left, a lot of the aged community has passed away.”
On the corner site of Russell and Browning street in South Brisbane, the Greek community owns five properties. One of them is GOYA house, a pre-1911 building. Hellenic House, being another one, is not heritage listed nor pre-1911, Mr Georgiou said.
“22 Browning and 34 Russell Street is a very old house, it has no significance. Council has not come back to us yet about our application. If they see the need to protect 34 Russell Street, which is a little old house, they will make that decision. And we will talk to them about it,” Mr Georgiou said.
Commenting on reasons why the Greek community submitted demolition application for some of its properties, Jim Georgiou told Neos Kosmos that the community is looking at many different options in order to progress and to build an income stream for the community.
“It’s not just about demolishing because we don’t want to be there, it’s about what does the community need, going forward to the next 20-30 years? We are being a little bit more lateral in our thinking – we have a number of professional advisers who are looking at the sites and letting us know what we can and can’t do. Once we work out what our options are, we will present it to our members at the special general meeting at some point in the future,” Georgiou said.
After a three-year legal battle, this week Brisbane City Council opposed the Greek community’s application to have 125-year-old Belvedere House at 27 Edmonstone Street demolished. The application was logged in 2010.
President Jim Georgiou confirmed to Neos Kosmos that Belvedere would be restored.
“The community and the council agreed to demolish parts of Belvedere that are not significant in the heritage listing. When Belvedere was purchased by the Greek community in the 1960s, it was already in its current state. No one lives in it any longer – we stopped tenanting that house about three and a half years ago as it was quite unsafe.”
No final decisions have been made yet on how the restored Belvedere may be used in the future.
“It will be definitely be community use, we are just speculating at the moment. We are thinking to use it as a library, as we have a number of books but no library.”
Restoration of the building will be funded by the Greek community.
“We still don’t know how much is it going to cost, but in next 18 months we’ll try and look how we could allocate funds for restoration,” Mr Georgiou said.
Residents can have their say on Brisbane’s future by providing feedback on the draft new City Plan, which opened for formal consultation this week. Formal consultation will run to midnight on Tuesday 30 July. For more information visit www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/newcityplan. To submit your feedback, contact newcityplan@brisbane.qld.gov.au or call 07 3403 8888.
