Study into Willow Court use.

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with both Dr Norrie and Dr Osvald about the engagement project that they have been investigating at Willow Court. They explained the project and stated that this will be approximately the 15-16th report into Willow Court. We were able to explain some of the history and the complex and mixed history of the site and plan on returning to have more input. 

The reports range from the Architectural values through to the large McDonald Report (found in the documents tab on this site) created to plan for the future use of the site. This project was put forward by The New Norfolk Business Alliance which is a Special sub committee of the Derwent Valley Council. The study will look at future community engagement opportunities for the site and is seeking interested groups and individuals to have an input into the process.

As I reported in an earlier report, the Derwent Valley Council are currently also looking at an expression of interest process for the site, which they have been announcing for nearly two years. The Council are looking at interested parties to restore, occupy and use the site.

Interested parties are yet to see the conditions and details that are set out but the Council have been looking at the advertising costs and options up to $76, 960 (+GST) which they admit is unfunded from the ratepayers at this stage. The proposal from the DVC agenda is below.

University of Tasmania Community Engagement Project
The New Norfolk Business Alliance has been exploring how a community arts project could be used to promote visitation to New Norfolk. As a result of discussions Dr Helen Norrie (Lecturer at the School of Architecture and Design) and Dr Tamas Osvald (Research Assistant at the College of the Arts) from the University of Tasmania have shown an interest in the collation of information and undertaking a short community mapping exercise which will inform future community engagement opportunities.
Dr Norrie and Dr Osvald have been successful in receiving approximately $5,500 through an internal University of Tasmania grant (Creative Culture and Society Research) to further explore the potential for collaborative and interdisciplinary projects with Willow Court as the basis of the discussion. The project is a short term program which will be completed by December 2017 and will collate information, map the community and identify potential future collaborations and opportunities for future projects. Dr Norrie and Dr Osvald intend to provide the results of their project to the Council for further discussion once completed. This project does not involve any financial commitment from the Council and the outcomes may assist in future funding applications. A brief outline of the project is attached.

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Patchwork Cafe

A long history has been had for the demountable building that we know today as the Patchwork Cafe in the privately owned section of the hospital grounds at New Norfolk.

In the documentary that recorded the last six months (Six Months to go and counting) before the closure of the institution there is a scene where you can see the steam rising from the grate just in front of the door of what is now the cafe, in it’s current location. This was part of the steam loop heating system that went to each Ward of the Hospital. Many people have a vivid memory of steam rising up in the middle of winter in the hospital grounds.

The demountable building was first located beside K1 (building with the clock tower) then moved after the construction of K2 (current Masonic Lodge). It wasn’t in the plan in 1883 but appears in the picture above and it is the building with a pitched roof located about one third along in the photo from the left.

Some people have only ever know this buildings as Patchwork Cafe and others have known this demountable building as a school and an Occupational Therapy building. Today it sits in it’s third location and still bears the marks of being part of the Institution. If you look carefully inside at the windows you will notice that the glass on some of the lower pains is quite thick and around the wooden window frame there is are holes where metal bars once were installed to stop escapes.

This picture shows the building in it’s current location before the gardens and the strange and sometimes controversial old car bodies that currently surround it. The picture below shows the side and rear view and lacks the gardens that have been put in around the Cafe.

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Memories

Last week was a tremendously powerful week for evoking memories and reflection with “Remembrance Day” activities being broadcast on the television and ceremonies being held in our community. It was also a week that I found out that a number of people I knew had died.

This has had me thinking about remembering, reflecting and the social normal methods we share and speak to each other about the death of friends, relations and colleagues.

It wasn’t that long ago that I noticed another cherished colleague, too many at the Royal Derwent Hospital, had died and as expected there was a wonderful response and out pouring from past friends and colleagues, all sharing their condolences and stories of who that person was to them and their loss and sadness felt. As a small community there was a joint grieving that could be felt even through the digital social media that we commonly use today.

This has made me think as I was dealing with grief, the grief and loss of two people. This was on top of the news of the last six people in a short space of months that have died and yet some of this news I hadn’t heard for weeks afterwards.

There had been no opportunity to show that out pouring of grief, no opportunity to attend public funerals to celebrate the lives of these people and the contribution they had made to society and the people around them. There was no Facebook group to share this knowledge, no place to write your thoughts. It was allowed to quietly pass.

This is the life (and death) of the past Residents of Willow Court.

What is stopping this from happening? Doesn’t true inclusion look the same as other people’s lives or is the need to maintain the “Organisation’s” privacy and confidentiality policy stopping real inclusion, even in death?

The only characteristic that is different was an intellectual disability. Maybe we have a long way to go.

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