Is There A Tunnel Under the Young Court House?
Hilltops Council has resolved to support a heritage listing which covers much of Carrington Park in Young as well as nearby buildings in a submission which includes the Site of the Lambing Flat Riot site and the ‘Roll-up’ banner. Council Is to receive a further report upon completion of the consideration of the listing by Heritage Council of NSW,
summarising feedback and any recommended changes to the draft State Heritage Register.
The report stated that the nomination includes an
archaeological site, the riot and battle site, and the ‘Roll-Up No Chinese’ banner that was flown during the event. It covers Carrington Park, the majority of the Young High School campus, part of Young TAFE, and the surrounding streetscapes of Caple, Ripon, and Campbell Streets as well as the banner, currently housed within the Lambing Flat Folk Museum which is situated across the road
The Heritage Council of NSW considers
nominations for listing on the State Heritage
Register based on an assessment of its heritage
significance and taking into account any
submissions received from the public. The Heritage Council of NSW then makes a recommendation to the Minister who has the final decision on whether or not to direct the listing of the item on the State
Heritage Register.
The Australian colonies experienced a time of
dramatic change and growth during the 1850s-1860s gold rushes with a huge influx of population and associated social turmoil. The Lambing Flat Anti-Chinese riots were an outcome of these gold rushes and associated social disruption. They were one of the first major battles between police and miners and examples of major outbreaks of violence against Chinese goldminers on the NSW goldfields. The sequence of anti-Chinese riots at Lambing Flat from November 1860 to July 1861 are considered to be one of the most extraordinary and shameful incidents in NSW history.
It also involved the first effective reading of the Riot Act in NSW history, which was proclaimed from within the area proposed to be included within the heritage listing. The political and social impacts of the Lambing Flat
Anti-Chinese Riots were felt well beyond the local area, becoming a defining moment in the history of relations between Europeans and Chinese in Australia. Soon after, the NSW Government restricted Chinese immigration to the state and arguably contributed to the formation of the White Australia Policy following Federation. This policy prevented the development of a multi-cultural
Australia for the next 75 years. Hence, Office of
Heritage NSW notes that this site and the event has social significance to all Australians.
The Office of Heritage NSW notes that the
Lambing Flat Anti-Chinese Riot Site and Associated ‘Roll-Up No Chinese’ Banner have significant
historic and cultural value and offers rich
opportunities to tell the story and its impacts on the people of Young and NSW. Despite growth and change in the locality over the last 150 years, the open landscape of Carrington Park and its surrounding streetscapes continue to assist in visualising and interpreting the events of the riot and battle.
The heritage nomination is in association with “three connections to the riot and battle between miners and police which occurred on Sunday 14 July 1861, towards the end of the Lambing Flat Anti-Chinese riots.
The nominations curtilage demarcates the extent of this open landscape along the streetscapes around Carrington Park and Young High School. The Nomination describes: The SHR (State Heritage Register) curtilage boundary of the riot and battle event site is demarcated by the limit of the open landscape and remnant sloping topography across Carrington Park and its surrounding streetscapes (Caple, Ripon, and Campbell Streets). This is the
visual catchment necessary to visualise and
interpret this event on site. The proposed heritage nomination included, the whole of Carrington Park, the majority of the Young High School campus, part of Young TAFE and the surrounding streetscapes of Caple, Ripon, and Campbell Streets.
According to the Office of Heritage NSW the site
allows its important story to be comprehensively and emotionally told to all Australians and preserve it in their social memory. The open landscape and remnant sloping topography of the grounds of Young High School and Carrington Park allow the sequence of this riots to be demonstrated to the people of NSW. In addition, the ‘Roll-Up No Chinese’ banner, held at the Lambing Flat Folk
Museum is considered to be a key item of moveable heritage associated with this story. The archaeological remains of the Gold Commissioners Camp (located beneath parts of Young High School and Young TAFE) are a rare resource and demonstrate how Gold Commissioners and police lived at mid-nineteenth century NSW goldfields. Potentially it can also answer research questions about this battle and riot event.
The former Great Courthouse (opened in 1886 and now part of Young High School used as the Assembly Hall) is the last remaining symbol of law and order from the period on the site of the Gold Commissioners Camp.
Additionally, the State Heritage listing often allows a wider range of land uses for a property to be
considered than land use zoning would otherwise permit. This is to allow activation and that the
proposed land use can be shown to facilitate
conservation objectives and sympathetic and
adaptive reuse of the item. The proposed State
Heritage Register (SHR) boundary incorporates
adjoining streets which largely align with the
boundaries of educational and cultural institutions run by religious organisations and not for profit
community groups including Hennessy Catholic
College and the Catholic Church.
The properties that front the curtilage of an SHR
listing may need to obtain approval from Heritage Council according to Heritage Act NSW 1977 and the State Heritage Regulation 2012 depending on the types of works proposed. The Ripon Street
curtilage follows the boundary of St Marys Parish of the Catholic Diocese of Goulburn.
The Campbell Street curtilage fronts premises
managed by the Young Arts Council. Additionally, there are some private properties abutting the
nomination area along Campbell Street and Caple Street.
There is still plenty of discussion regarding the
possibility of a tunnel existing in the precinct for
prisoner transfer between the Court House and the old Jail situated on the site of the Young Tafe.
Shadow Minister for Rural Affairs Mick Veitch urged those with any knowledge of the tunnel to speak up if they had any evidence of its existence.
There has been no evidence to date that it exists provided from proponents within the Young
community.
