Possible Q&As and related issues
PERMIT FOR WESLEY
Overview
A Permit has been granted for a redevelopment at the Wesley Church and Wesley Mission Victoria
Complex, 118 - 148 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, which includes some demolition.
This is a major culturally significant landscape in the city and the Executive Director’s assessment of the
permit involved extensive negotiations to ensure maximum regard for heritage safeguards. These have
resulted in significant design amendments including greater separation between heritage and new
elements, opening up views to the Lonsdale Street frontage and increased podium heights over heritage
structures.
The Executive Director also focused on the proposed demolition of the Princess Mary Club and required
additional structural reports and a peer review of the reports to determine the precise condition of the
building before agreeing to this step.
The Site
Q. What is involved in the site?
A. The Wesley Complex (H0012) consists of ten buildings including: The Church (1858); The Manse
(1859); and The School House (1859) all designed by Joseph Reed; a Caretakers Cottage (1914); the
Princess Mary Club (1926), designed by AS Eggleston and Nicholas Hall (1938), designed by Harry Norris.
The North Boundary wall along Little Lonsdale St (1869) incorporates remnants of a stables and also
includes a section which was rebuilt in 1914 during the construction of the Caretakers Cottage. The
Lonsdale Street boundary is defined by a set of basalt central gateposts, the basalt plinths of a cast iron
palisade fence and the bases of a smaller set of gates which led to the Manse(1873). Standing in the
forecourt of the church is a bronze statue of John Wesley by Paul Montford (1936).
The Methodist Church has had a presence in Melbourne since the beginning of European occupation and
the Wesley Church has been at this site since 1858 having moved from a site in Collins Street. The
Wesley Church complex has been the core of Wesleyan Methodism in Victoria since this time and the
headquarters of the Wesley Mission Victoria since 1893.
The Princess Mary Club is of historical significance in the history of women's employment in Victoria as a
rare surviving example of a 1920s hostel for young women coming to the city to work and study,
enabling the greater inclusion of women in the workforce. It underwent major alterations in 1940-41 and
closed down in 1988. Only the ground floor has been in use since that time.
Permit
Q. What does the permit allow?
A. The permit approves
 the construction of a mixed-use building of 34 levels including for mechanical plant plus ground
and lower ground floor levels
 the demolition of some intrusive non-significant buildings (brick sub-station and factory), the
Princess Mary Club building and stables
 works to adapt the schoolhouse, manse and caretakers cottage for commercial use
 conservation works to the retained heritage buildings at the site
 consolidation of existing lots and subdivision of the site into three new lots.
The permit has a number of conditions including the requirement to undertake conservation works,
maintain a sinking fund for future conservation works, lodge financial security to ensure the completion
of conservation works, installation of historical interpretive material and photographic archival recording
of the Princess Mary Club.
In addition a professionally written history of the founding of the Princess Mary Club building and its uses
from construction until demolition is to be prepared - with particular emphasis on its significance as a
hostel for young women. The study is to include a minimum of ten interviews with former boarders at the
Club to ensure that the social history of the building with reference to personal reminiscences is also
captured.
Q. Why is the Church proposing these works?
A. The application arises from a development agreement between Wesley Mission Victoria/Wesley
Church/Uniting Church of Australia and Leighton Properties who will enter into a 125 year ground lease
over part of the site (lot 3).
In return the Church will be provided with accommodation in the new building and a sinking fund will be
created to provide funds for conservation works to the heritage buildings in perpetuity.
Significant conservation works, estimated at around $9 million, form part of the conditions of the permit.
Demolition
Q. Why was the permit granted?
A. The application was approved on the basis that, despite obvious impacts on the heritage place arising
from the demolition and new development, on balance it provides a beneficial outcome in the form of
badly needed conservation works to the Church and other heritage buildings at the site, most of which
are no longer required for their original purposes.
Q. Why was permission given to demolish the Princess Mary Club building?
A. The demolition of the Princess Mary Club was approved only after the assessment of three separate
engineering reports, two submitted by the Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust ( the applicant) and
a third commissioned by the Executive Director to peer review the applicant's reports. All three reports
concluded that the building suffers from considerable structural faults which will cost in the vicinity of $18
million to address and would require extensive replacement of the heritage fabric.
Q. Hasn’t this been proposed before?
A. There had been two earlier heritage permits to demolish the building, granted in 1991 and 2008, but
these both had expired. These earlier permits were also granted on the grounds that the development
would help fund restoration of other significant heritage buildings on the site and following structural
reports which highlighted the poor state of the Princess Mary Club. These earlier development
partnerships did not result in works progressing within the life of the permits.