DEAR News Of The Area,

Firstly I would like to thank Jo Besley for the fabulous job she did in setting up our last ‘new’ museum at 215a Harbour Drive. The building that was originally the courthouse and police station.

It was a pleasure to visit this facility and I was delighted to be presented with a regional museum with a modern edge in an historic building that was both colourful and engaging.

It is unfortunate the museum could not have been transported to and promoted in a different location, such as the Jetty Foreshore in order to serve both the tourism industry and the local community.

With the inclusion of the lighthouse optic, which has been transported and boxed as a curiosity adjacent to the new community centre, we could have had a maritime and historical museum that spoke of our maritime/timber getting and indigenous histories in a relevant location with visitation numbers befitting its purpose.

C’est le vie. Another opportunity to develop our local tourism industry [has been] lost. Meanwhile we watch and hope the new owners of the Glenreagh rail station and track are able to deliver on this front.

The constant inference by the pro ‘Yarilla Place’ voice, insisting there is no understanding in the community of the need for improved cultural services is an absolute nonsense.

Not one single person I have spoken to (and I have spoken to many) has ever denied the need for great cultural facilities for this city or its youth.

We are all still waiting with bated breath for a suitable performing arts space.

Apparently any hope for such a facility has been pushed back – by council administration costs in the ‘big green building’ on Gordon St – for at least another 4 to 5 years.

As to the letters regarding colours and materials for the so-called ‘Yarilla Place’, I would say people are allowed to grieve – in whatever way is available to them.

The fact it was designed by someone who grew up here is no consolation.

It is a pity he could not have applied the same sustainability criteria to our design as he did to the Quay Quarter Tower project in Sydney. https://www.bvn.com.au/project/quay-quarter

Having waited and hoped for stand alone cultural services for so many decades I am not impressed.

I’m not impressed by the building, nor the financial impost on community because of the inclusion of administrative offices.

I’m not impressed by those councillors who stood against the community’s wishes for an alternative.

And I’m not impressed by the constant denigration of the community that feels so passionately about its future – both its wants and its needs.

All of the positives that Jo Besley mentions will be made available through the new facility would have been included in any new design – no argument there.

Any needs for council’s administrative staff could have been addressed by the inclusion of space vacated in Rigby House thanks to the relocation of the library and gallery.

The only way forward for those of us who feel cheated by this design and its financial impost is to look to the future.

Look to the time when council once again gets ahead of itself and its own self importance and decides it needs to move downwards, taking up the space now occupied by the museum and gallery.

On that day we may come a step closer to seeing Coffs Harbour acquire the facilities it both wants and needs.

I look forward to seeing what Jo Besley and the team have in store for us in the meantime.

By the way, does anyone know when the facility will open?

Regards,
Ann LEONARD,