The groundswell of community opposition to have Melbourne’s iconic Palace Theatre razed in favour of constructing luxury apartments at the site of the 2,000 capacity live music venue is reaching a public peak this weekend.
A rally against the development of a hotel apartment complex at the site of the Palace Theatre is set to take place in Melbourne Saturday 12th October, spearheaded by the ‘Save The Palace’ group and Melbourne Heritage Australia, who are pushing for another 5,000 or so signatures for their online petition, bringing it to their goal of 30,000.
Its the same number of public protestors the Save The Palace group are expecting to turn out for the rally, taking to the steps of Melbourne’s Parliament House at 12 noon on 12th October, hopefully stretching their 30,000 strong members of public, music industry, and live music supporters down Bourke Street to the foot of the Palace Theatre.
The Save The Palace Theatre group and their more than 30,000 Facebook supporters, have been lobbying heavily against the destruction of the historic live music venue for the sake of a luxury hotel complex, urging supporters to make formal objections to the City Of Melbourne Planning register ever since the proposal from property developers Jinshan Investments surfaced in June for the 31 storey construction of a W Hotel branch: a 205-room, 145 apartment complex built across 20,000 square metres – at the top end of Bourke Street. The Save The Palace Theatre group and their more than 30,000 Facebook supporters, have been lobbying heavily against the destruction of the historic live music venue…
Final approvals for the building plans were dismissed by Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy in early July, who said that Jinshan Investments were “dreaming” if they though their submissions would be approved in their current form. “It is too tall, it is in the wrong location,” said the Minister. Alarming renderings of the proposed hotel development, showing what the top end of Bourke Street would look like without the Palace Theatre, also emerged online to much community backlash.
A Melbourne Council meeting on the matter then took place in August, where Lord Mayor Robert Doyle excused himself from proceedings when the $180 million project was raised, citing an indirect conflict of interest because his former chief-of-staff, Alister Paterson, is a consultant on the CBD hotel complex proposal.
The Palace Theatre however, is still not safe, with reports from the Save The Palace group that a Future Melbourne Committee meeting held on Tuesday 10th September indicating that Jinshan Investments’ application had been put on hold in order for them to rework the proposal.
“The application came into Melbourne Council for referral from Department of Planning and Ministerial referral,” the group’s Chris Thrum told Tone Deaf. “[The] Council Town Planning team and Councillors had a look at it, they sent some questions back,the applicant did come and present to Councillors on their views, Councillors [then] gave their feedback,” he explains.
Currently the applicant has told the Department of Planning that they are reviewing the design, presumably to satisfy Minister Matthew Guy’s previous comments that the current proposal exceeds size and site specifications.
“It’s a good development but in the wrong location,” said Minister Guy of the project in late August. “For the Parliament Hill precinct, that building is too tall… I understand this is an international hotel brand, one of the most respected in the world (and) I’m sure they’ll have no trouble finding another site either in Southbank, Docklands or throughout the CBD.”
Meanwhile, the Melbourne Heritage Action have sent a formal objection go the proposed development (which can be read here), the detailed objection focuses on heritage issues, the height of the proposed structure and its impact on the culture of the Bourke Hill and Parliament precinct. They have put forward an application of the venue’s heritage listing to be updated, currently the venue’s facade is protected, but an update would protect the entire building.
Heritage Victoria are currently assessing and believed to be in discussions with architects to discuss the Palace’s heritage value, which could be the cause of the recent application deferral, as The Music reports.
A united public front will provide the physical face and voice to the objections of the $180 million apartment complex development, with organisers head-hunting local musicians, government figures, and heritage staff for the rally to be held Saturday 12th October, while the Facebook page for the event (which quotes Tone Deaf’s own opinion piece on the matter) calls on industry, punters, and public alike to add their support to the venue and their cause.
As Music Victoria CEO Patrick Donovan emphasises, the iconic Melbourne venue is “one of the few medium sized venues that can host the bigger Australian acts as well as international touring bands. Its absence would leave a huge gap for 2,000 capacity standing room venues,” leaving only the likes of the 1,050 capacity Billboard, the 1,500 capacity Forum Theatre, and the 2,896 seats of St Kilda’s The Palais for promoters left to choose from, either downsizing or upsizing their capacities, while competing with other cultural events like the comedy and film festival.
Save The Palace Theatre Rally
Saturday 12th October
Parliament House, Melbourne VIC
12noon onwards
