Council, locals at odds over new heritage plan for Moorooka war cottages
Brisbane City Council and residents in World War II cottages are at odds over a plan for a heritage overlay to protect the 180 homes.
The parcel of land, known as the Moorooka War Workers’ Housing Estate, is registered as an historical site.
The homes housed World War II workers in the 1940s when they were making ammunition for the Allied Forces.
Chair of the Moorooka War Workers Homes Community Group, Brian Luckins, lives in one of the homes and explained the homes are already protected under character protections>
But the council is investigating replacing it with a heritage overlay.
“When I purchased the home, I was made aware that if I was to do any renovations to the home, I couldn’t demolish the home and I was under a lot of restrictions about maintaining the street appeal and the character of the area.
“That’s what we are seeing a lot of ill-informed messages coming through about this issue.”
Press PLAY below to hear Mr Luckins explain the current scenario
The community has started a petition to take to council over the ongoing issue.
Mr Luckins said while locals and council both want to protect the homes, some restrictions are too far-reaching.
“There are 180 of these homes, many of which almost the majority of which have had renovations … these restrictions look to stop that level and increase it to what we would consider it to be not adding value to the story or the community just adding a lot of burden of cost to the residents and home owners.”
Images: Residents in the estate, supplied