Council’s last minute bid for old jail

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By Tim Howard

Clarence Valley Council will make an 11th-hour bid to get hold of the historic section of the old Grafton Jail, after knocking back a similar opportunity three years ago.

In 2020 the council decided against acquiring the jail because of fears it would be too costly to maintain.

But the recent subdevelopment of the site meant that the council could acquire just the historical section, even though it appeared the NSW Government has decided how it would deal with the site.

At the November Clarence Valley Council meeting Cr Novak moved the general manager write to NSW Museums and Galleries general manager Brett Adlington seeking advice on the restoration status for the state heritage listed facility and report the feedback to council as soon as practically possible.

Cr Tiley questioned the motion, believing it may be too late.

“The information report I understood was fairly clear,” he said. “Half is the Local Aboriginal Land Council land claim, a quarter’s Health Department and the remaining quarter, the heritage bit is going to be sold.

“I’d love to us to be able to retain some portion in posterity for the people, but I don’t see how that’s possible. It was laid out. Can you comment?”

Cr Novak said her motion would allow the council to find out what opportunities were available.

There was some conjecture if Cr Novak had picked the right target for contact in Mr Adlington.

Crs Greg Clancy Karen Toms argued he was too far down the pecking order to provide meaningful advice to the council They said it would be more meaningful for the council to go straight to the jail owner, the NSW Government, to see what it had planned for the part of the site the council was interested in acquiring.

Cr Novak agreed that it would be wise to seek the government’s views, but defended the choice of Mr Adlington because of his local knowledge.

“Mr Adlington is from our region, and he knows the jail as well,” she said.

“I believe that he will be pivotal in providing advice alongside what the New South Wales Government has to offer as well.”

Cr Clancy said the council needed to talk to the government about this and sort to amend the motion to this effect

“I think we need to find out whether the government is prepared to sell to the council at a reasonable rate and then assist with the ongoing maintenance because that was what the issue was when this came to the council in 2020. I think it was,’ he said.

“We were very interested in preserving the jail and we would have been interested in possibly taking it over but the ongoing maintenance costs was the real issue.

“I don’t know that we necessarily can it can or need to explore it with the management of the galleries, etc. So that’s that’s my reason for the for the amendment.”

Cr Steve Pickering suggested a foreshadowed motion that tweaked the order of preference in the motion, putting contact with the government ahead of writing to Mr Adlington and including Cr Clancy’s amendment as a point 4.

This appealed to Cr Alison Whaites, who said the council was not as pushed for time as it appeared.

“We actually do have a bit of time up our sleeves,” she said.

“From what we’ve discussed at our cultural committee, it was going for sale in October.

“They usually go by our auction. And we do have that time to get this letter written.”

She said getting more information in December was a feasible timeline.

“And so I think we do actually have time and maybe in December might come back to us and then we can discuss the possibility of putting a hand up to purchase it or the general manager or the mayor or somebody actually being able to bid at the auction so there is a bit of time in that sale process which probably now won’t happen until next year.” Councillors were not convinced by the amendment, voting it down 5-4. But they did approve of a suggestion to bolt Cr Pickering’s foreshadowed motion to Cr Novak’s original motion.

‘In