THERE has been no lack of big ideas for the Bathurst CBD over recent years – from apartments in silos to blocked-off roads.
Amid the current debate about whether the Bathurst CBD is ailing – and, if so, what can be done about it – the Advocate has taken a look back at some of the more ambitious suggestions for the centre of our city in recent times.
Charles Sturt University then-Professor of Engineering Jim Morgan and then-Tremain’s Mill owner Stephen Birrell in the mill site’s wooden silos back in 2017 (left); an artist’s impression of serviced apartments on the former Dairy Farmers site in Bentinck Street (centre); and Professor Ed Blakely, the author of a number of books on urban planning and development, in Bathurst in 2019.
Down on the corner
IT remains an eyesore on a busy corner, but there was a time when the old Dairy Farmers site on Bentinck Street was soon going to be the home of a Quest serviced apartments development.
Two years later, as the site remained quiet, Bathurst Regional Council’s director of environmental, planning and building services, Neil Southorn, said council was “hopeful that it’s not long before the Quest development starts to emerge”.
An artist’s impression of the serviced apartments plan for the former Dairy Farmers site in Bentinck Street.
As of 2024, however, no progress has been made.
Down the road at Orange, a Quest Apartments development in that city’s CBD was approved in 2011 and opened in 2019.
Silo apartments
FORMER Tremain’s Mill owner Stephen Birrell was not afraid of thinking big in the early years after he bought the sprawling Keppel Street site.
Charles Sturt University then-Professor of Engineering Jim Morgan and then-Tremain’s Mill owner Stephen Birrell in the wooden silos back in 2017.
There are 18 wooden silos at the mill, in two groups of nine, built from Oregon timber and located just behind the concrete silos.
Open or closed?
West Bathurst residents Kent and Dianne McNab collected signatures from residents against any potential closure of one block of Russell Street. Picture by Chris Seabrook
If the plan had been adopted as written, Russell Street would have one day been closed between William and George streets to make way for a “permanent events plaza”.
Council staff said they did not support the closure and councillors and the community were also not keen.
“I wouldn’t like to see that closed at any time, for any reason, other than the times we do it now, just for short-term sort of stuff,” then-councillor Alex Christian said.
“I think any permanent closure should be out of the question, it’s that simple.
“Regardless of certain car parking and things like that, I think pushing traffic onto other roads will only cause a nightmare.”
Link the parks
AN urban planning and regional economic development expert was also interested in the Russell Street block between William and George when he visited Bathurst in 2019.
Professor Ed Blakely – best known for overseeing recovery management in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, but who also worked on the Whitlam government’s decentralisation program in the 1970s – said Machattie Park felt unfinished to him because it was separated from Kings Parade.
Professor Ed Blakely, the author of a number of books on urban planning and development, visited Bathurst in 2019.
“I feel very comfortable in it, but it’s not complete,” he said. “And I wonder why.”
The Klyde Warren Park in Dallas, Texas, which opened in 2012 after being built over a section of freeway, transformed that city, he said.
“It was a divided area like this. And then they put eating stands there, outdoor libraries; it’s a place that almost everybody goes once a day for lunch, for an evening concert, for meditation,” he said. “It becomes the heart and soul of the city.
“And you have the asset here that’s got bitumen on it.”
Car park conversation
He said he had spoken to many community members about parking, and the response generally was that there simply weren’t enough all-day options available around the CBD.
He said women had also reported feeling nervous about walking to their cars at the end of the day.
Silo apartments, closed-off streets: Five recent big ideas for the Bathurst CBD
“They’re finding that they are having to park further and further away from town, especially in winter when it’s cold and gets dark earlier,” he said.
Cr North said the company looking to help Bathurst improve parking was interested in coming to the city to meet with council staff.
“It’s only early stages, but the fact they have contacted me gives me hope,” he said.
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