Our say | Community’s job to stop history crumbling

At a time when Bathurst is more focused than ever on our colonial past the barracks on Paul and Bonny Hennessy’s property remain something of a secret to most residents.

The Hennessys have already done a remarkable – and costly – job of restoring the former homestead of explorer William Lawson but restoring the convict barracks is a very different thing.

The barracks hold a unique place in the history of our region and hold within their crumbling walls countless stories from the convict era.

Many current residents are direct descendants of the convicts sent to serve their terms in the barracks so, as a community, we should be determined to retain such a tangible link to the past.

As always, though, the question is: Who should pay?

Just as we have seen with proposals to redevelop the former Dairy Farmers site and Tremain’s Mill complex in Bathurst, the desire to protect the past is tempered by the commercial reality that the cost too often falls unfairly to private owners.

But any plans to redevelop the convict barracks should clearly be a case where public money is provided for a “private” project that offers a public good.

There is no intention to convert the barracks to a commercial premises or private residence but, rather, an educational facility focused on Australia and Bathurst’s colonial past.

School groups would conceivably flock to the region to see genuine artefacts from the early days of the colony it to gain an appreciation of how both convicts and the wealthy landholders of the time lived their lives.

Mr Hennessy makes the point that heritage facilities should have the same right to public support as art or sporting facilities, but he is not quite right.

Funding for heritage assets should be given higher priority as we get only chance to protect the past.

Once the barracks crumble that chance will be lost, and we have been warned that moment may not be far away.

The time for talking about our concern for the past is over – now we must show our concern with cash.

And sooner rather than later.