Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Honourable Speaker, I rise this evening to speak on Willow Court. I seek the leave of the House to table two documents that were circulated earlier today.
Leave granted
Ms BADGER – Thank you. The first of these documents is a summary from the Willow Court Workshop Proposal and includes the Statement of Remembrance for Willow Court, which was written at that community workshop. Although I don’t have the time to recite it in full today, I want to note its significance and how we should always look and consider speaking about Willow Court and its future through the lens of the Statement of Remembrance. The Willow Court workshop was held in November 2023. It was a community-based workshop with over 50 participants, who were part of that workshop for a full weekend. Its intention was to collectively collaborate on finding an agreeable, respectful and prosperous way forward for the Willow Court precinct, including Frescati House.
The second document is a letter from Dr Linda Steele and Phillippa Carnemolla seeking to support the state government in any way that they can for a way forward in Willow Court. A means that is trauma-informed, led by the community, as aformentioned in the workshop that that provided the foundations for. A way forward that is led by those who resided at, worked for or were impacted by Willow Court. The timing for the tabling of these two documents is very important, last week marked the 25th year since the closure of Willow Court and it also marks beginning the beginning of the council led EOI process for the Frescati House.
In the 25 years since Willow Court’s closure, various buildings that made-up the entire precinct have been lost to vandalism and privatisation, and in some cases some of the heritage and architectural values of these buildings have been altered, while in some cases they’ve been preserved. To risk losing another building before a holistic site plan or any protection planning overlay to prevent the erosion of the vast values of this entire site. It will only hinder future efforts for preservation and it will gut the integrity that the site still has.
Willow Court tells a globally significant human rights story and that is what’s highlighted in the letter from Dr Steele. It also has its 19th century buildings and that includes Frescati House. They have a significant aspect of the history to the convict history that Tasmania has. In fact, the barracks building actually predates Port Arthur. It is one of the only sites holistically in the nation that has buildings representative of institutional architecture from colonisation in every era right through to the 20th century.
In March this year, the Derwent Valley Council requested over $2 million in funding assistance for the Willow Court site for a business plan, noting that this funding request excluded Frescati House. That funding was also for much-needed maintenance on buildings that are a part of the Willow Court precinct. It’s a shame that neither the state nor the federal government have yet stepped up to actually help out and protect this site and all the values and work for a constructive way forward.
The case for preservation can’t be put any better than what was in the Derwent Valley Council’s request for funding on the 10 March 2025. I quote from that paper:
To lose Willow Court through continued neglect would create an irreparable gap in Australia’s architectural and social history. Its preservation represents more than just the saving of historic buildings; it ensures the maintenance of a crucial link to our past that can inform our understanding of mental health care, institutional design, and social attitudes for generations to come.
If properly planned out and funded, the Willow Court precinct can have a prosperous future, and it can mediate a globally significant human rights story. It can have any number of private ventures, but it can also still retain its integrity.
It’s time that all levels of government actually got together and sat down at the table and worked this out, that they collaborated. The community came together and did it at the workshop. It’s time that everyone stepped up and got this done. We made a vision for the future, actually committed to it, to see it through, properly funded it before any further erosion of this site’s integrity and values are lost in perpetuity.
