The last surviving Albion house connected to the family of pioneering Sunshine industrialist HV McKay is facing a wrecking ball.
Brimbank council has approved a planning permit application that will see heritage-listed Stuart McKay house demolished to make way for a $10 million, five-storey development of one and two-bedroom apartments.
The council’s approval follows two failed attempts – in 2008 and 2011 – by the Sunshine City Club to bulldoze the derelict 1937-built weatherboard house. The fire-ravaged building is on the back corner of the Albion bowls-and-pokies club’s property.
The club has provisionally sold one third of its land, pending the council’s approval of the developer’s planning permit application to demolish Stuart McKay house. Club manager Brian Smart said the council’s tick of approval would ensure the sale went ahead, saving the bowls club from mounting debt.
“The club has been saved,” he said. “This will help us get back on our feet – we’ll be completely out of debt.”
Mr Smart said patronage at the not-for-profit club had dropped since the council blocked off access to Anderson Road from Talmage Street three years ago.
Brimbank city development manager Stuart Menzies said approval to demolish the “dilapidated” house followed years of neglect.
He said the dwelling was in “extremely poor condition” and the extent of work required to reconstruct it meant that “it would effectively have little heritage value if it were to be retained”.
Mr Menzies described the proposed development slated for the site as being of “high architectural quality”.
In August last year,
Star Weekly revealed Stuart McKay house was the subject of an ongoing police investigation after nine suspicious fires ravaged it in a 10-year period.
The 80-year-old house has a heritage overlay recognising its connection to H.V. McKay, a pioneering industrialist who was involved in the Harvester wages judgment.
It is the last surviving McKay house in Talmage Street. It was home to Stuart McKay, H.V. McKay’s nephew, who played a prominent role in the McKay business overseas arm.
The Sunshine and District Historical Society did not object to the demolition of the house based on its “sorry state”.
In a letter to the council, the society said it believed “it is in the community’s best interests to demolish existing eye-sore and replace as per plans”.
It requested signage be commissioned telling the story of the site’s history.
