Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Go the Maroons, indeed—that is where my heart is tonight as well. In recent months in Geelong there has been a debate about the Ritz building. This is an old, beautiful Geelong building which is in a tragic state of dilapidation. The debate rages about whether in fact to level the building or seek that the owners restore it. It is a very, very sad thing to look at that building, as I do every day on my way to work. What it does highlight is the value of heritage within our community. I have had some preliminary discussions with the City of Greater Geelong to explore ways in which we can develop our heritage in Geelong. It has shown me some really exciting work that it has done with owners who have restored beautiful old heritage buildings to a wonderful state in the City of Greater Geelong. The T&G building, which is perhaps the most iconic building within Geelong has been restored to a wonderful state in its original art deco form. It stands there on the corner of Moorabool and Ryrie streets right in the heart of Geelong. We look forward to the day when the men who come out and ring the bell on the hour, which is something I grew up watching, can happen again. What has been done there is fantastic.

The Village Cinemas, also in Ryrie Street, is another wonderful example of how restoration of old, beautiful buildings can completely change the vista of our city. Indeed, the building in which my electorate office resides was built in 1851 and was the Royal Mail Hotel. In 1972 it reached a point where it was dilapidated and boarded up. It was revitalised in 2005 and now, since the Commonwealth took out a lease on it for my electorate office, I get to enjoy this wonderful heritage building which displays the very best in Geelong.

I believe that the way forward in terms of trying to develop the heritage of our city is to identify some of the key heritage buildings in Geelong which would benefit from investment by their owner and which could have the same kind of transformation that I have described with other buildings. I would like to get those owners in the same room as some of the people who have actually done this work to hear the commercial benefit of it, why they did it, what it has done for the value of their building and how it has contributed to our city. As we speak, I am talking with the city of Greater Geelong about bringing that meeting together, so we can try to spread the good word about heritage. We have enormous heritage value in Geelong. We do not develop it in the same way as cities like Ballarat and Bendigo, and yet in many respects the heritage and history of Geelong is much more significant than those cities and it could be a real economic boom for our city if we can develop our heritage.