Sophie goes to Minister
FEDERAL authorities will be asked to develop a long-term management plan
for the Glenrowan siege site.
Yesterday, Member for Indi Sophie Panopoulos said concerns had prompted her
to ask the federal Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, to intervene.
“I’ve written to the Minister asking for some expertise to develop a
management plan at Glenrowan,” she said.
“Four weeks ago several people contacted me about the works and as a
result two officers, one environmental the other heritage, visited to see what
was being done.”
Ms Panopoulos said the Glenrowan siege site, listed on the national
heritage register, was in desperate need of a management plan.
Source: The Border Mail.
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There were slight variations of this article featuring Historian Ian Jones.
Ned Kelly site ‘atrocity’
Battlefield now a garden: historian
BY BRAD WORRALL
Ian Jones says council works have destroyed the Glenrowan siege site.
Picture RAY HUNT
NED Kelly historian Ian Jones says the Glenrowan battlefield where the
bushranger was captured has been robbed of its soul.
He says Wangaratta council’s beautification of the site has removed
significant parts of the landscape and made it almost unrecognisable.
What was once expected to be revegetated to resemble 1880 is now halfway to
a landscaped garden, with paths wending their way over rock wall bridges and
trooper bollards.
Mr Jones says it is an atrocity.
“It is dead, history,” he said.
“They have created waterways with engineering angles and concrete, built
bridges that weren’t there and taken away the native trees.
“It may end up a pretty picture, but it will not be the Glenrowan
battlefield.
“The fact is if you lose the feeling that a battle was fought here
you’ve lost the plot.”
Mr Jones says a master plan, that he helped develop in 2002, had been
tossed out with the new works.
“It was supposed to be sensitive and considered works to recreate the
siege site but there is nothing sensitive in these works,” he said.
“To recreate it you have to start from scratch.
“It’s like a master painting, you work on it and work on it to get it
back to what you want. You don’t just whitewash and start again.”
Wangaratta council economic development manager Graham Nickless said it was
never council’s intention to reinstate the scene.
“That was never our intention we wanted to improve the site for tourists
and history,” he said.
“We have been very careful with the work and while it looks like a work
site now, I believe when it is completed it will be accepted by everyone.
“I have the utmost respect for Ian Jones but the purists would like it to
look like it did in 1880 and that is an impossibility.”
Mr Jones has no doubts the landscaped gardens will prove popular.
“This is lovely for the kiddies but it is supposed to be history,” he
said.
“Sure this is going to bring in the tourists but at what price.
“Should we set up the Kelly carousel and a McDonald’s as well?”
Mr Nickless admitted that a ditch, where police were believed to have taken
cover, had been covered because of health and safety concerns.
Source: The Border Mail.
Mr Jones was alerted to the
devastation by this website.
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Ned Kelly site wrecked: expert
June 08, 2006
WORKS at the site of Ned Kelly's
last stand have destroyed its historical value, an expert on the outlaw said
today.
Author and historian Ian Jones, a co-scriptwriter of the 1970 film Ned
Kelly starring Mick Jagger, said he was appalled at the beautification
works at Glenrowan, in Victoria's north.
Kelly was captured after a 12-hour stand-off between the gang and police at
the site, which was placed on the national heritage list just over a year ago,
Mr Jones said.
Mr Jones said he recently returned from overseas to find the whole site had
been bulldozed, a trench police took cover in during the siege had been
re-routed, and a "rustic" stone bridge built over a creek.
"The area is supposed to be turned back into the rough bushland it was
in 1880, according to a masterplan drawn up in 1982," he said.
"They seem to have totally discarded it.
"It looks dreadful, it looks as though they are setting up a
supermarket carpark."
Mr Jones said the works were supposed to be carried out with the approval
of Heritage Victoria.
"If that is the case, it's just mind-boggling that anyone charged with
guarding our historical heritage could condone this atrocity," he said.
"If they think this is satisfactory they should lose their jobs. Heads
should roll."
Mr Jones wants the local council, The Rural City of Wangaratta, to undo the
works.
Comment was being sought from the council.
Source: The Daily Telegraph.
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Historian says bulldozing destroyed Kelly Gang site
A leading Ned Kelly historian says an important
trench at the Kelly Gang siege site in
Glenrowan, in north-east Victoria, has been destroyed in revitalisation
works in the area.
The rural city of Wangaratta is undertaking $1.8
million in works there.
The council says it is doing the works in line with
Heritage Victoria guidelines.
But historian Ian Jones says the damage being done to
the area is criminal.
"It has just totally lost any feeling of what
was there originally," he said.
"The whole battlefield between the railway
station and the whole side of the pub has
been bulldozed and it is now looking like the site of a supermarket car
park."
Source: ABC
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