OVERLAY CONFUSION
Committee to reconsider listing of former IGA building

20 January 2010

IAN LEWIS

THE Glenelg Shire Council’s heritage advisory committee will consider lifting the heritage overlay on the former IGA building in Henty St, Casterton.

The advisory committee is due to meet in the Casterton Town Hall during February and high on the agenda will be the future of the former supermarket, which was built about the turn of the 20th century by messrs H and G Harris as grain and produce stores.

At the time, the stores were described as ‘the largest and best equipped in the Western District’.

The old grain stores at the rear of the building are the subject of the overlay and it is believed were one of the reasons behind the delay to the new redevelopment at the fomer Foodworks site.

The February meeting is not open to the public and items on the agenda have not been made public but the News believes the heritage overlay issue will be high on the list of items to be discussed.

It is also not known if the advisory committee will discuss the application for a demolition permit that Western District Health Service submitted to the council to demolish the old scout hall and RSL building in Merino to make room for the new community health centre, which is set to replace the existing Merino Bush Nursing Hospital.

Once the demolition permit is issued, Western District Health Service then has to apply for a planning permit to build its new centre. To help with the process, the heritage advisory committee was asked for a report on the issue before any permits would be issued.

The shire’s director of planning, Syd Deam, said two weeks ago that he was unaware that any recommendations had been received from the advisory committee and was uncertain when the permits would be considered by the shire.

The old ‘Harris’s Store’, was known as wine, spirit, timber, grain and general merchants and its ‘large accommodation yards’ were used to buy and store wheat, oats, barley, wattle bark and all dairy products.

Early scribes described the building as ‘a handsome brick two-storeyed building with extensive frontage and solidly built exterior’.

“The interior is a veritable hive of industry and the magnificent space and generally excellent manner in which thousands of pounds’ worth of goods are arranged and shown calls forth one’s admiration, and clearly denotes that a clever, shrewd and experienced businessman is at the head of affairs.”

The building was sold two weeks ago and its future is unclear.