History of Community fight to save Gold Creek Homestead24th July 2000.
Public meeting for community consultation on the development plan proposed by Richard Small of Quinton Small Architects. Quinton Small was commissioned by the ACT Government to draw up a plan that would be viable and make a lot of money for the government. It included dense residential development, an aged care complex, a nursery and a motel. All on 11 hectares and only leaving the homestead and immediate house & yard untouched. Due to completely inadequate advertising of the meeting by PALM there was a very small attendance. Julie Broderick heard of the plans and organized a public meeting to warn residents of the plans. 14th August 2000.
70 people packed the Ngunnawal Neighbourhood Centre and totally rejected Quinton and Small’s plan. The consensus was that the whole property should be retained for community use, recreational and educational, retaining the rural character. The Gold Creek Homestead Community Working Group (GCHCWG) was formed. 19th August 2000.
The first meeting of the GCHCWG (coordinator Julie Broderick) moved to write a formal submission to the ACT Government saying what they did want for the property and what they did not want based on the suggestions put forward at the public meeting. The submission also stated that the public consultation process was flawed. The submission was sent to the ACT Government in December 2000. 23 October 2000.
Further public meeting to discuss the Quinton Small plan which had been put on public display. Again there were objections to this plan and support for the open space, community use, retaining buildings and rural character. November 2000.
An open day was held at Gold Creek Homestead (GCH). Hundreds of people attended and expressed their delight in such a beautiful old property. All expressed their desire that it be retained for community use, maybe with some small commercial use, such as a function centre, coffee shop, and restaurant to help with financial viability. The GCHCWG continued to meet in 2001. They ran petitions and raised public awareness. Thousands of signatures on the petitions were obtained. They also organised Gungahlin’s tenth birthday celebrations to be held on 6th April 2002 at the GCH. That year a grant was also obtained from the ACT Government to write a history book about GCH. 6th April 2002.
The birthday party attracted approximately two thousand people. Guided tours were given around the homestead. It was a lot of fun with school choirs, displays, markets, bush band, novelty races etc. The comments were very positive for the need to retain the property as above. Most of the GCHCWG were busy involved in research, interviewing and writing the history book. Sometime before the birthday party a new “committee of experts” was formed by Julie Broderick to progress with saving GCH. Not all the members of the original committee were aware of the new group and were not invited to meetings. At this time the process became disintegrated. To my knowledge the only progress made since then was that Total Care commissioned a Condition and Costing Audit of the main homestead building. This is a substantial and valuable document. Also soil testing for contamination by arsenic sheep dip and petrol was carried out. I do not know the results. When nothing seemed to be happening and no information was coming from the new group one member of the original group, (myself) and a community member, Audrey Guy, arranged a public meeting. 24th June 2003.
Public meeting - Michelle Frost from the ACT Government Department of Property, Urban Services; (formerly Total Care) came. Peter Johns, from PALM and Haydon Kozlow from PALM attended. Two motions were passed at this meeting. - That we ask the Government to provide an action plan for stabilization for the Homestead, buildings and surrounds, including identification of action items, and a time frame for completion.
- That the meeting reaffirms the value of the homestead and environs to this community and to the Canberra region and seeks urgent consultation with the Government with a view to expedite a plan for the use of the property.
Despite all the problems I feel confident some progress has been made and can be built upon with co-operation between the authorities and the community. At the November 2003 meeting of the Gungahlin community Council it was suggested that a new Gold Creek Homestead be formed as a sub-committee of the GCC. Interested people were invited via the local newsletter, Gunsmoke, to form a new committee. 7 February 2004.
First meeting of the new Gold Creek Homestead Community Working Group. (GCHCWG) The first meeting of these people was held on Saturday 7 February. The motion was passed that this committee be independent of the GCC. Kevin Cox was elected the convenor and asked to represent the group if at all possible on the ACT Government Property Branch Committee. 17 August 2004.
Report into the Future use of Gold Creek Homestead finally released | 
