UPDATE ON WILLOW COURT


Ongoing media attention and politics seems to be prevailing at New Norfolk about Tasmanians’ Willow Court:

7th November 2023 Media release Derwent Valley Council


Derwent Valley Council has terminated its lease with New Norfolk Distillery, effective immediately.
Council will now arrange inspections of the Alonnah, Occupational Therapy and Carlton buildings, including the exercise yards, to determine the state of the buildings and identify what maintenance works are required in order to make them safe and to prevent any further deterioration.

The outcome of these inspections will help Council consider the options for the future use of these buildings.

Willow Court has been part of New Norfolk’s history for over 200 years and Council is committed to its ongoing reimagining and revitalisation of this important asset. Development of a Heritage Interpretation Plan for the precinct, defines how Council, precinct partners and community stakeholders can communicate its heritage values and sensitively manage Willow Court’s story into the future.

The adaptive reuse and activation of Willow Court has already seen outcomes, such as the multi-million investment into the Corumbene Health Hub on the Avenue, and Sisters’ restoration work on the Ladies Cottage and Nurses Quarters, both currently in development.

Council will continue to seek opportunities that will ensure ongoing funding for the restoration, maintenance and activation of the site over the long term. We will continue to work with other leaseholders and land owners within this historic precinct to secure its future as an asset to our community.

https://www.derwentvalley.tas.gov.au/home/latest-news/statement-regarding-new-norfolk-distillery-lease

Another failed attempt to put ideas into action at the Willow Court Site. The history of the site and the people who have had ideas of it’s repurposing have been long. Unfortunately many ideas have failed to take off. We learnt that this idea for a rum distillery, tasting centre and conference facility was going to employ many locals, both in the construction phase and the on going running. Both haven’t eventuated. On the 7th November 2023 the Derwent Valley Council released the above media release and they have taken back control of Wards C, A and the Occupational Centre.

We learnt that the owner of the Distillery believed that the rent was going to be forfeited as in kind support. We also know that the owners believed that the buildings would be given to the company in kind. We also know that owners of the business believed that the water, power and sewage services would be connected by the council (rate payers) in kind. We also were made aware that the owners secured a 1.2 million dollar grant from the Liberal Government (outside of normal grant practices) and that one of the owners was a liberal Minister’s employee.

What we are not sure about is why the owners believed that the rate payer and tax payers would be funding their business and it’s expansion. This has been an idea and business proposal that follows on from many others who have has a similar outcome for various reasons. The Derwent Valley Council again suggested calling for expressions of interest, but this wasn’t adopted by the council at their December 2023 meeting.

Meanwhile a community group has held a community workshop that was heled to discuss what the community want from their building. The results of this workshop were shared with the council at a workshop. In between that time there has been a number of businesses applying for the use of Willow Court, including Tasmania’s Most Haunted”

A request to have access to the site from the group that started the community meeting was denied. The group call for a cohesive separate governance structure separate from the political influences of elected members of the council. This is a similar set up at Port Arthur, with the Port Arthur Authority. The new group consists of many people from a wide range of professional and business backgrounds with history in heritage, project management and governance to name a few.

The Willow Court Community Workshop group sent this update today:

14 January 2024

An update on the Willow Court Community Workshop.

The WCCW outcomes report was forwarded to the DVC on 5 December. On Friday 8 December, the council’s December meeting agenda was published online. One of the agenda items was the Expressions of Interest for Willow Court. This occurred before the WCCW group had time to present the outcomes of the workshop to councillors.

Group representatives met with the acting General Manager and Mayor the following week where we raised our concerns and it was suggested we could lodge an EOI. As it happened the EOI motion failed as it was not supported by councillors.
The WCCW group presented to the councillors at a workshop on Wednesday 10 January. Our PPT presentation is attached. In attendance were Crs. Justin Derksen, Peter Binny, Sarah Lowe, Philip Bingley, and Matt Hill, and the Mayor. Two councillors were apologies. One councillor officer was in attendance.

One of the main outcomes of the report to councillors was that the WCCW report outcomes be formally endorsed by the council so that we can move forward on the planning from the workshop outcomes, particularly towards an independent management structure for the Barracks precinct and for the inclusion of the co-design aspect of planning for Willow Court.

The council’s January meeting agenda came out on Friday 12 January. It has two items from business operators in the Willow Court Barracks precinct. One from Willow Court Tours (Tasmania’s Most Haunted) and one from the Agrarian Kitchen. These agenda items were prepared by the council before the WCCW group presented to the councillors on Wednesday evening.
Reading the background to each item there is mention of the council being approached at the end of last year, hence the attempt to get up the WC EOI motion at the December council meeting. These Willow Court business operators were aware of the WCCW.

One had been consulted in the early stages of planning and the other attended part of the community workshop.
Should there be any progress on these two agenda items at the council meeting on Thursday 18 January it will indicate the council is happy to stay on its merry-go-round of piecemeal decisions on the future of the Willow Court Barracks precinct, in the complete absence of a long term vision for what the site could be and a masterplan to ensure the site is developed and governed to its full potential, or in consideration of the WCCW outcomes and the valuable input of the many people who gave their time and knowledge to the workshop.

You can read the council’s meeting agenda (Click on Picture) will open in a separate window.


One of the outcomes of the WCCW was the request by participants to tour the council owned Willow Court buildings. The response to our enquiry from the acting General Manager was first that we needed to have a bona fide reason to access the buildings, and on Friday last week his response was that he wouldn’t let us tour the site today unless we had an understanding of building maintenance. He suggested a small group could tour the buildings on that basis to get an understanding of the issues and scope of what is required to make them habitable.
The workshop group will be meeting next week to discuss next steps.

So, the future for Willow Court is still as clear as it was when it first closed in 2000. The opportunity to hear the people and what they want from their site is still not clearly being heard by those whose job it is to manage this site on behalf of the owners, the people of Tasmania.

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Traveler’ descriptions

Before the internet, before video, before photographs and cameras the only way a traveler could describe the journey and scene in front of them was to write it down in such detail that allowed the reader to formulate a picture in their head. There were a number of travelers visiting Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) who described visiting the hospital at New Norfolk. Today we’d call them travel bloggers. This is one such article.

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Willow Court Community Workshop

Back L-R: Pat Murray, Steve Balmforth, Val Costarelli, Nigel Graham, Nicola Rouleston

Middle: Graham Gourlay, Sharon Hutchison, Peter Rouleston

Front: Anne Salt, Fran Hartz, Jon Grant, Darryleen Wiggins

A new community group is looking to chart a way forward for the Willow Court precinct in New Norfolk, signalling a more stable future for the troubled 200-year-old historic site.

The group, which has been meeting informally for the past few months, has arranged this professionally facilitated workshop to identify common ground about how the former mental hospital can and should be developed by the private and public sectors.

Currently, the buildings and spaces in the Willow Court precinct around the 1830s Barracks building are owned and managed by Derwent Valley Council.

Originally established to cater to convicts, the core site of three hectares in New Norfolk’s centre evolved through multiple eras of mental health treatment, disability care and PTSD therapy until its closure 23 years ago.

Its ownership and management was subsequently turned over from state to local government.

But while extensive research into the precinct’s deep history has produced archaeological and conservation plans, business development and management strategies, their implementation has been stymied by a conflicting decision at government level, funding failures and a lack of community consensus.

This sixteen-hour three-day workshop being held at the New Norfolk Bowls Club over November 10, 11 and 12 is intended to draw from the local Tasmanian community workable ways to allow the site to be restored and made financially self-sustaining through public-private sector collaborations.

Already, sections of the site have new lives as an aged care facility, a popular antique store and an upmarket restaurant.

Any plan needs to acknowledge the significance and deep sensitivity of a place that has a chronological span four times longer than that of the better-known Port Arthur.

There’s a real risk, says the community group, of continued decay of the site and its multiple assets, the Barracks – the original hospital designed by John Lee Archer – the high security section known as Carlton and Allonah Wards and Occupational Therapy, and Frascati House, home of the Colonial Secretary John Burnett.

“We expect over these three days in November to identify current options and develop a vision and action plan with a shared understanding of the Willow Court Barracks precinct’s future,” says group spokesperson Jon Grant.

“What’s needed is a plan that the New Norfolk community owns and sees to fruition,” “Because this Willow Court site is unique and nationally significant, we expect to hear a wide spectrum of voices and views.”

For further details about the three-day workshop or to book a place please email

willowcourtcommunityworkshop@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/groups/822596072685174/announcements

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Punishment or therapeutic

Well before electro convulsive therapy the Hospital adopted galvanic batteries as part of the therapy treatment for patients. Mostly applied by untrained staff in the mid to late 1800’s, these therapies often were seen as therapeutic but also had a history of being used for punishment in the hope that the patient’s mental state would be changed. One such treatment is recorded here in the hospital records of 1856 to 1872. After the therapeutic administration was completed, the simple threat of ongoing treatment was enough to subdue the patient.

JB’s experience was somewhat different to E.S. and J.B. only had a short stay in the hospital, “had a current” which aroused him somewhat to a violent and threatening state before a much gentler treatment saw him head home in 1872. The practice of galvanic batteries became a common practice for some decades in the hospital and by the 1900’s galvanic batteries could be bought at the pharmacy for personal use to assist with minor ailments like; sore feet (inserted into the shoes) and attached to glasses to relieve the sinus suffer from that dripping noise.

The hospital often used galvanic batteries in baths, with some treatments using the electric discharge with water knee high and some waist high. There are some records of the galvanic battery being used for 1/2 an hour to no effect, so this wasn’t a huge dose of electricity. By the 1930’s we saw the introduction of the modern ECT machine. Unlike today, the ECT was administered without anesthetic. ECT is still considered to be a therapeutic option for some patients today.

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Volunteer attacked

Portcullis Holdings legal attack on Willow Court Volunteer. Courtesy of the Mercury Newspaper

Anne Salt has been a volunteer worker with the Friends of Willow Court and other committees in the Derwent Valley for the past 14 years. The Friends of Willow Court were set up by the Derwent Valley Council as a special committee under the Local Government Act. The Council has changed all their committees, or are in the process of assisting committees to move to a Incorporated body with both administration and financial support.

The Committees will be replaced by advisory bodies to the Council. The Friends of Willow Court have been working with the Willow Court History Group as we are both aligned ethically to present the site as a Tasmanian Heritage site that holds a significant place in our history and respect the site with due sensitivity for the past residents and staff.

We are disappointed one of the Derwent Valleys’ community volunteers has had to endure weeks of targeted legal threats from Portcullis Holdings. Justin Derksen was the secretary when the “Friends of Willow Court” was registered as a business and is currently standing as a candidate for the Derwent Valley Council.

The main part of the site is owned by the Derwent Valley Council and is leased to a number of business and groups including the Agrarian Kitchen, Derwent Valley Arts, and Portcullis Holdings.

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Aerial Photograph RDH east

Photo Courtesy: Tom O’Brien.

This is a great aerial view from the northeast looking at the Royal Derwent Hospital (Lachlan Park) and beyond towards the township of Lachlan. Each building is clearly marked for its use and Wards are numbered. Some interesting points are the Hayes Prison Farm Grazing property, although this was owned by the hospital, two secure Wards, Ward 7 and Ward 10, many of the supporting infrastructure is clearly marked including the coal storage area, the boiler house was later converted to oil fired and heater the whole site including the west side of the hospital. At the height there were approx 50 artisans working throughout the site.

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Lyprenny/Hastings Hostel for sale

Lyprenny/Hastings Hostel Ward is up for sale in the privately owned section of Willow Court. It’s been a long time since people have had a glimpse inside the Ward. Originally this Ward was Lyprenny down stair and Hastings Hostel upstairs with the medical clinic on the lower floor. It was the only building that had a lift between floors.

Click image to find real-estate agent
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