Owners and custodians of heritage-listed places will share in more than $940,000 in funding to help protect Queensland’s important state heritage places.
Minister for Environment and the Arts Leeanne Enoch said 30 recipients were receiving funding for projects that include repairs and restoration work to help preserve our important heritage buildings.
“Heritage places are an important aspect of the community’s character and identity and they allow us to trace our history and feel connected to the important stories about our past,” Minister Enoch said.
“This round of funding is part of the Government’s $18 million Community Sustainability Action Grants Program, which help conserve Queensland’s environment and heritage and protect wildlife.”
Minister Enoch said this community-driven heritage grant program supports locally based projects that help to protect culturally significant places in communities.
“For example, Childers’ Paragon Theatre received $40,000 to replace external cladding and undertake repairs to the roof, and Stonehouse on the D’Aguilar Highway near Moore received $40,000 to rebuild termite-damaged walls.”
Minister Enoch said some of Queensland’s remote heritage buildings were also benefitting from this funding.
“Noccundra Hotel in far southwest Queensland will also receive $16,700 to repair and replace down pipes and guttering on the hotel and kitchen buildings,” Minister Enoch said.
Sarah Turner, Director of Pandari Trust, said Noccundra Hotel, about 140 kilometres west of Thargomindah, was built in the nineteenth century, and lays on the former stock and trading routes from South Australia and New South Wales.
“Despite its remoteness, Noccundra Hotel continues to be a tourist attraction, meeting place for locals, families and stockmen, and a resting place for travellers,” she said.
“The hotel is one of the earliest examples of a surviving hotel from Queensland’s early pastoral settlement era and was built of stone from Mt Poole quarry in New South Wales.
“By replacing the guttering and downpipes, we’ll direct water away from the stone building and prevent further damage to the historic stonework.”
Since 2016, more than $2.7 million has been allocated for 81 heritage conservation projects, and these grants are going a long way to protect Queensland’s heritage-listed places.
