Save our Preston Market
Only if a council officer says I can..

Darebin Appropriate Development Association
Protect our community
The decision of the DADA and Save our Preston Market Heritage Register application was published on the 18th of September.
We were not successful in proving the statewide significance of the market to achieve a listing on the register but the Heritage Council Victoria did make make a recommendation to local council and/or the state government to apply a heritage overlay.
You can read the final determination here:
There have been articles in the Leader:
At the council meeting on Monday the 14th of October community representatives made the following submissions:
DADA Submission to last nights Darebin Council Meeting.Darebin
Council has been roundly criticised by the Heritage Council of Victoria for its ‘disjointed’ approach and handling of the Preston Market.In their numerous recommendations, Heritage Council Victoria notes that Darebin Council in its submission did not include a Heritage Study that it commissioned by ‘Context’ in Dec 2017, nor 2 reviews of that study.Community supporters of Preston Market concur with the experts on the Heritage Victoria committee. And together with the architects presentation given last week, we believe there is an increasing and compelling body of information for all Councillors to make an evidence based decision to push for a Heritage Overlay as one of a raft of measures to protect the market.Should it be determined that more work needs to be done, then the next step should be to request an Interim Heritage Overlay as Minister Wynne did previously.It’s time for Council to act on behalf of the ever growing number of concerned community members. Chris Erlandsen
The State Heritage Council recently, in its Report, recommended that our Market strongly warrants a ‘local heritage overlay’ which seemed to contradict council’s prevarication on this issue. The protection of the Preston Market is paramount in our community we have been fighting for several years now to protect it. For over 2 years, we have sought Heritage protection. The community do not believe that they have had the genuine support of some councilors to achieve this goal.We elect councilors for two reasons, one to show leadership, the other to ensure that community requirements are met as often as is possible.Councils are advised by non elected bureaucrats whose role is to establish how community needs can be met. If councilors believed a heritage overlay could help our market and bureaucrats do not, then it is incumbent on our elected reps to tell the bureaucrats to reassess, aft all. Council’s parking strategy was rejected by the community and was withdrawn, this is called democracy.The Heritage Council, while rejecting state significance, in its Report, clearly and decisively over and over recommended a local heritage overlay being warranted, and clearly recommended that Council endorse and act on this. Council, at its last meeting rejected this. The question the community wants answered is why? Why have we had to try and drag council, kicking and screaming to support a local heritage overlay which has been obvious to the community for over two years? Will they recognize that this is a significant way to protect our market and will they now admit the community were correct and get behind us or be condemned by the community for refusing to take every possible step to save our Market?
Marion Harper
The Preston Leader has the following article on their Facebook page. Happy reading.
At the planning committee meeting last night the majority of Darebin Councilors voted to effectively demolish Preston Market in favour of moving and rebuilding it, even though the most recent report commissioned by council says that the key attributes of the market cannot be preserved in a new building at a new site.
In consideration of a recommendation authored by the Coordinator Strategic Planning, amendments suggested by Councilor Greco to preserve the current market on the current site were rejected.
Representatives from community groups, DADA and Save our Preston Market, gave two minute presentations on the significance of the building fabric and the living cultural history embedded within it.
There was a third invitation made to council for a briefing from the original architects on the aesthetic and technological significance of the old market buildings.
DADA believes there are ethical concerns when council is willing to take a briefing from developers but will not hear from the original architects.
You can watch the debate here:
http://www.darebin.vic.gov.au/Your-Council/How-council-works/Meeting-Agendas-and-Minutes/Council-Meetings
Scroll down to Watch Council and Planning Committee Meetings and look for the Planning Committee Meeting dated 19th of August 2019. If you look carefully you will see some Councilors referring to a green paper. This is a paper that has not been shared with the community and is so far is not public. Secret council business?
You can read the final recommendation in the minutes here: http://www.darebin.vic.gov.au/Your-Council/How-council-works/Meeting-Agendas-and-Minutes/Council-Meeting
Maria Poletti
DADA President
Chris Erlandsen and I, together, have written over 20 thousand words for the heritage application for Preston Market.
A big thanks to those of you who added to this with your personal submissions in support.
No thanks to Darebin Council, excluding Councillor Grecco, who have been fighting the community push for a heritage listing and a heritage overlay.
We are at the end stages of the protracted process with the hearing scheduled for 9.30am, Wednesday, 17th and Friday the 19th of July, 2019.
The venue will be Conference Rooms, Level 10, Woodward Centre – Melbourne Law School Building, University of Melbourne, 183 Pelham Street, Carlton, Victoria, 3053.
If you can spare 30 minutes or more on either of the days it would be wonderful to see you there to show the Heritage Council that Preston Market is important to all Victorians.
Hope to see you there, Maria
DADA President.