COMMUNITY groups with an interest in local history are being invited to join a community advisory committee proposed for the Pioneer Settlement.
The proposal from the Swan Hill Residents and Ratepayers Association was discussed briefly at a Swan Hill Rural City Council assembly earlier this week, ahead of the Association’s annual general meeting, on Tuesday night.
After the AGM, Association secretary Roger Day said an advisory committee would allow the groups to take a more active role in contributing to the future of the region’s premier tourist attraction.
“We’ve connected with a few other groups in town and they’re all keen as mustard to do this,” he said.
The list includes the Swan Hill Genealogical and Historical Society, Mallee Steam, Oil and Machinery Club, Swan Hill Vintage and Classic Vehicle Club, and Speewa Heritage Collectors Club.
Mr Day said they’d also like Friends of the Pioneer Settlement, which is made up of the volunteers who run many of the activities and raise funds for development, to be involved.
The intention was to bring the groups together, gather input from a community perspective, and provide recommendations to council.
“It doesn’t mean council has to follow the recommendations,” he said.
“But hopefully, it would mean that things like the waste of money for the fighting of the Heritage Overlay wouldn’t happen, or that maybe even an overlay may never have needed to happen if they’d listened to the community in the first place.”
Mr Day said stopping the proposed $10.9 million Our Place centre from being built in the Pioneer Settlement grounds was the Association’s biggest win of the past year.
Council unsuccessfully objected to Heritage Victoria’s recommendation in April 2021 that the Pioneer Settlement be included in the Victorian Heritage Register.
After a public hearing in December last year, Heritage Council Victoria ruled on March 9 that the Pioneer Settlement “as the first and one of the most influential of its type in Victoria” should be registered.
Of the 525 written submissions to the Heritage Council, just a handful opposed the listing, which means a permit or exemption from Heritage Victoria is now required before it can be altered.
Mr Day said new members were always welcome to join the Association which advocates for “things that need to be done in town” by council or other government agencies.
“It’s not always a negative,” he said.
“Sometimes there’s good things that are going on, and we like to praise the council for things that they do well.”
During the AGM, three of the four office bearers – President Robyn Wilkie, Vice-President Ken Higgins and Mr Day – were re-elected.
The Association meets on the first Tuesday of each month from 7pm at the Swan Hill Club.
