Share

Submission to Council for a Composite Heritage Curtilage. 15 Feb. 2011

Council’s Draft DCP is incomplete:

1.    The Menangle section does not mention the Cowpastures, Governor Macquarie, Mt Taurus or Camden Park House and other heritage assets .

2.    Part of our areas heritage is the rural views which are also not mentioned.

Existing Reports on Views and Curtilage.

1.    Macarthur South Paper 1991 reported

  • The Menangle Hills as being Culturally significant.
  • Gilbulla and Menangle needed protection
  • A curtilage was required for protection of these sites and for visual relief
  • Adjacent land use “ …should complement the heritage item” (p78).
  • stresses the use of “protected by appropriate zonings and the development of appropriate guidelines” including the preservation of vegetation and the careful assessment of visual impacts” (p78)

2.    Wollondilly own Heritage Survey in 1991, reported Menangle Village has “heritage significance because it is an unusually intact example of a RURAL service centre.”

3.    The Camden Park Estate report for the Department of Environment and Planning by Howard Tanner and Assoc. in 1983 identified the view from Menangle Pond to Menangle as requiring preservation. (Page 7 Map)

4.    Christopher Betteridge, BSc (Sydney), MSc (Leicester), AMA (London), Director of MUSEcape Pty Ltd, is a qualified botanist with a Master’s degree in museum studies and training in heritage conservation. He lists Menangle as modeled on the typical English village, including a beautiful church within walking distance for locals, a store, a common, a school, all within a carefully manicured landscape.

Menangle’s uniqueness sets it apart from the rest of Wollondilly because:

  • It is Wollondilly’s only historic village in the Cowpastures and a part of the original Camden Park Estate (State Heritage listed.)
  • It has within 6 km, 35 listings on the State Heritage Inventory and with 18 historic houses in Menangle, which makes 53 historic assets.
  • It assisted with 15 Australian Agricultural Firsts from 1788 to last years Rotary Robot Milking Machine..
  • It was and is, agriculturally significant in wool, meat, dairy, fruit, brandy, wine, irrigation and research.
  • It is still one of the most agriculturally productive areas in the Sydney basin.
  • It is environntally significant with the Nepean River, endangered wildlife, fish and remnants of cumberland woodland.
  • 30,000 people visit the area for education and tourism annually.

Menangle is unique in Australia and it needs a “Composite Heritage Curtilage” like Berrima’s to protect the rural heritage and encourage employment in tourism and agriculture.