Petition

Dear Residents, In the 5 March edition of The Moreland Leader, you may have seen an article regarding the long over-due museum in D-Division .    If you have not heard of the museum this is explained below.      We are asking people to sign our petition at https://www.change.org/p/save-historic-d-division-pentridge-before-it-disappears        To-date the petition has reached 1,195 signatures, which is a good effort but more would be kindly appreciated.         Pentridge Community Action Group at https://www.facebook.com/PentridgeCommunityActionGroup.PCAG/; 

email: pentridge-community-action-group@googlegroups.com; save-coburg@googlegroups.com

There are also some other actions that people might wish to consider:

•  Email or phone the Planning Minister and ask the Government to purchase D-Division to create a museum for all Victorians. A simple 3-word sentence is all that is needed ‘Please buy D-Division’ (but write more if you feel like it and have time). Hon. Richard Wynne (03)86830964  richard.wynne@parliament.vic.gov.au; 

• Email or phone the Member for Brunswick, Hon. Jane Garrett, (03)938 41241, (03)8685 1555, 31 Nicholson St, Brunswick East,jane.garrett@parliament.vic.gov.au; Member for Pascoe Vale, Ms Elizabeth (Lizzie) Blandthorn, (03) 9354 9935, 416a Bell Street, Pascoe Vale lizzie.blandthorn@parliament.vic.gov.au        

From: Pentridge Community Action Group.

https://www.facebook.com/PentridgeCommunityActionGroup.PCAG/

Future Estate, developer of the southern part of Pentridge, has put historic bluestone D-Division up for sale.  Its future is under threat.

Ned Kelly's remains were transferred to D-Division in 1929 after his hanging at the Old Melbourne Gaol in 1880; they remained at Pentridge until 2009. D-Division also functioned as the main female prison in Victoria until 1956.  One of its most famous women prisoners was Adela Pankhurst, the suffragette and anti-war activist, who was imprisoned there in 1917. Later D-Division became the Remand Division, housing those awaiting trial.

The 'commercial real estate' advertisement for D-Division contains no mention of the legal requirement for a properly curated museum. Yet as long ago as 2000, Justin Madden, the then Planning Minister, stated that, “a museum...will be built on the [Pentridge] site” (The Age, 29 January 2000).

A legal agreement between the site’s owner and the Victorian Heritage Council in 2008 required that parts of D Division be devoted to “historical interpretation and museum administration”.  In 2016, a heritage permit (H1551) for mixed-use development in D-Division’s exercise yards mandated the creation of a museum comprising, “eight D-Division ground-floor cells, the remaining intact exercise yard and the single-story north annex building”.

D-division has been neglected by successive developers and its history eroded by a variety of poorly thought-out actions.  For example, painting of the building has obliterated prisoners’ writings and drawings on the cell walls. What more will be lost?

Future Estate is asking $4.5 million for this historic building, whose future is touted for uses such as a hostel for backpackers. Given the continued unwillingness by developers to comply with key heritage requirements, the time for action has arrived.  We believe that the State Government should buy D-Division and establish a museum in a site that has local, state, and national significance.

Please sign this petition to insist that the current government create the long-promised museum that will make the history of D-Division accessible to all.