Statement on the future of Sydney's Victoria Barracks

Statement of the Military History Society of New South Wales on sale and redevelopment of Victoria Barracks, Paddington, Sydney

Site map of Victoria Barracks precinct

The Victoria Barracks precinct contains some of the most elegant Regency style buildings in Australia, even though their original and continuing purpose has been functional as a military facility. The Barracks site is simply too compact in its dimensions (15 hectares) and too important historically to be developed for anything other than its present use. Precious heritage buildings and spaces are dispersed right across the site (see site map above).

In accordance with their function and the state of technology at the time of construction, the site’s structures are low-rise. We are concerned that new buildings would be higher in a way that overshadows and spoils the low horizontal silhouette of the Main Barracks, particularly looking to the south. In this regard the Main Barracks and the parade ground have historically been, and should now be, grouped together as a composite feature. Any new buildings that would impede views of the parade ground in the foreground and the Main Barracks in the background from a wide perspective would represent an irreplaceable loss to the nation’s heritage. Fortunately, no higher structures have arisen behind or southward of the Main Barracks to date so the silhouette remains intact and uncluttered, and this should remain the case.

We submit there is limited capacity to refurbish the site’s buildings for alternative purposes given their age, period design, construction materials, fragility and heritage value. Over a long evolution from the 1840s to recent times, the Barracks have served a variety of military and administrative purposes and hosted numerous important political, military, vice-regal and royal events and ceremonies, coinciding with major historical turning points. Some of these are the subject of exhibits painstakingly collected in the excellent Army Museum of New South Wales, which occupies one of the site’s buildings (see our blog post on the Museum here). The Barracks have a hallowed place in the tradition of many current units of the Australian Army which is so important to their sense of identity and regimental esprit de corps.

We note that around 30 to 50 per cent of the Barracks site is already Commonwealth Heritage Listed, being "the finest complex of colonial barracks ... in Australia", and also locally heritage listed. If the Department of Defence were to vacate the Barracks we submit the whole site should be preserved in its present form and classified as a National Park (Historical Site), open to visitors as a place of cultural significance.

To comment: email president@militaryhistorynsw.com.au or call 0419 698 783

The Society's main website is here: www.militaryhistorynsw.com.au