Concern is growing among heritage supporters that a developer’s plan to demolish one of Sunshine’s historic homes may have only been delayed.
Brimbank council refused a demolition permit on August 13 and voted earlier this month to make the former home of Headlie Taylor an “individual significant building”.
Taylor invented the famous header harvester machine and lived at the Durham Road address from 1921 to 1957.
Developer’s plans to demolish Headlie House in order to construct six dwellings drew objections from The National Trust of Australia. An online petition also drew support from Sunshine comedian Cal Wilson.
“I live in, and love, Sunshine and I want to see its heritage preserved,” Wilson said at the time.
Sunshine Historical Society member Speroulla Christodoulou has now called for a line to be drawn in the sand in terms of heritage protections.
“We’re definitely happy with the refusal and with council pushing for it to be an individual significant building,” she said. “We want it done [declared a signifiant building] as soon as possible.
“We want them to stand by their conviction around this … and not consider deterioration as an excuse for demolition. Otherwise, all neglected heritage buildings in Melbourne should be demolished.”
Ms Christodoulou said she feared the Wheelers Hill-based developer would take the issue to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
“Hopefully they don’t,” she said. “A heritage name and shame register may flush out those developers who have absolutely no empathy for the community and its need to keep that link with its heritage.”
The developer has the right to revise designs that would incorporate the home into a new redevelopment, in some form.
