Heritage at risk

The Old Bear

A pity then that they couldn’t embrace Holy Trinity’s situation in the same editorial – and since then the Australian Council of the National Trust has put the church on its list of the 10 most at risk heritage sites in the country.

SINCE Holy Trinity’s closure, emphasis has been on safeguarding the church’s war memorials, particularly the window to the 101 parishioners who died in World War One. But I’ve been asked about the protection of its World War Two memorials, and what about recognising conflicts since?

I see such church memorials generally as honouring all war dead – past, now, and in the future. Yes there are outside memorials, but a church provides a spiritual remembrance. And deconsecration of these memorials diminishes the sacrifices made. That’s something the RSL should be particularly concerned about.

In the context of contemporary recognition, let’s look at what’s being done elsewhere, achieved with the help of the print media. Last month, near Lichfield in Staffordshire, England, Queen Elizabeth dedicated a new hillside monument to the 16,000 British servicemen and women killed on duty since World War Two. This covered conflicts including Korea, the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan (three of these important to Australia – and we also had Vietnam).

This monument, the largest built in Britain since World War Two, and with its centrepiece a striking sculpture of a mortally-wounded comrade being carried gently on a stretcher, was, eventually, substantially lottery funded. And here’s the point of media persuasion.

The project cost six million pounds, but Britain’s Millennium Commission initially rejected funding saying it didn’t fit within the eligibility criteria for a grant. Enter the Daily Mail newspaper with a campaign of indignation and highlighting the threat that the memorial project could fail. With former defence ministers and military figures joining forces to condemn the rejection, plus readers providing one hundred and thirty-two thousand pounds within a few days, and new Prime Minister Gordon Brown personally intervening and agreeing to make almost two and a half million pounds available, the lottery fund had a change of heart and stumped up two million pounds.

On monetary matters, the idea of a state lottery in Tasmania to provide funds for at risk heritage buildings was suggested in a Launceston reader’s letter to the Mercury in August. There was no reaction. In fact, the proposal had already been raised at the Hobart City Council and also failed to catch journalistic attention. It had been in a report by council officers to aldermen on potential funding initiatives to protect Hobart’s churches and other built heritage. The officers suggested the Lennon Government might consider the lottery idea and cited the example of the British national lottery funding heritage project grants.

It seems to me that our local newspaper, although publishing many letters deploring the closure of Holy Trinity, has recently shown a disinclination to actually do any stories (apart from reporting on the physical closure of the church last month). The future of the Holy Trinity building (including the essential protection of its war memorials and other property) remains to be tackled.

Yes in late August the Mercury did publish an editorial headlined “Heritage too precious to neglect”, declaring: “Future generations will judge us harshly if we fail in our duty to preserve our built heritage”. Appropriate sentiments, but the editorial only mentioned the problem of Lauderdale Cottage and concluded with a “memo” to Environment Minister Paula Wriedt: “While this issue may not appeal to you as much as promoting an Elton John concert, this is important and it’s time you took a lead and got the parties to find a way to save Lauderdale Cottage.”

A pity then that they couldn’t embrace Holy Trinity’s situation in the same editorial – and since then the Australian Council of the National Trust has put the church on its list of the 10 most at risk heritage sites in the country. From all of the above, as they used to say in the earlier days of newspapers when publishing various items: “Mercury please copy.”