By AIDAN KNIGHT
THE Old Traralgon Methodist Church is no longer under the threat of removal, following the December 15 Latrobe City Council meeting.
The church, built in 1879 and most recently used as an information centre, is one of only 10 pre-1880 timber churches left in Gippsland.
The sole public speaker of the meeting, held at GPAC, was Barb Johnson, of the Traralgon & Disctrict Historical Society. Ms Johnson spoke on item 8.2, under strategic items for decision – the fate of the Old Methodist Church. Located at 41 Princes Street, Traralgon, the church has been the topic of many council discussions and a total of six Express stories since 2021. The historical society made a submission seeking council endorsement to secure the future of the building.
“I’d like to add a little bit of colour to the black and white words on the submission,” Ms Johnson began her speech by saying.
“The society does not own its own land, and we do not have large resources – of financial or otherwise. However, we do have sufficient funds to establish a museum, perhaps better described as a display centre, within the building.”
Ms Johnson detailed some of the notable items and artifacts the society would seek to exhibit.
These include:
-The fireplace that was the surrounds of the first Presbyterian Manse in Gaulia St, Traralgon, and;
-A 1902 Oldsmobile.
“These artifacts deserve to be available more widely to the public than all crammed up in our rooms at the Kath Teychenne Centre,” Ms Johnson stated.
She then detailed the society’s proposed plan to install displays categorised by theme, the first of which would be faith and transport, “in the initial phases.”
The group would also like to adequately commemorate the history of the building itself, displaying documentation and images of how the Old Methodist Church was transported from its original home to where it sits now.
Also included in the submission is that the society recommends the building stay where it is currently, as opposed to the floated idea in previous meetings that it perhaps be relocated. Combined with the context of its overall age, the society believes this could be critical to the church’s preservation. It has been moved three times since 1879.
“We are aware that leasing of the land is the first step along the way, alongside the ownership of the building,” Ms Johnson continued, calling such progress the first stage of the planned development program.
Ms Johnson declared that the plan submitted relies on community backing, likening it to the Traralgon Courthouse experience (which is currently undergoing works). She also detailed the community benefit of not only the outcome of such an agreement, but also the process, with opportunities for local tradesmen to be involved in the restoration stages.
“The budget we’ve presented is a first stage of restoring the exterior only,” she divulged to council, “and we hope that the Community Development Association and the Friends of The Courthouse will come alongside us and form a community group.”
Ms Johnson emphasised that financial accountability will be an aspect of the society’s regular reporting, and how much of a community project the vision is at its core.
“As we see it here, tonight is only part of it,” Ms Johnson concluded.
There was no questions from councillors, so the topic was brought up once again when strategic items were raised later in the meeting.
The motion proposed back in the August 25 meeting, also at GPAC, saw Budgeree Ward Councillor, Leanne Potter move for one final community consultation as to whether council should renew the lease of the historic building, now it is no longer used as an information centre. It received 10 submissions in total via the ‘Have Your Say’ survey hosted on council’s website, which helped officers develop a recommendation. It was also put forward that the $86,000 from council funds (that had been allocated to the demolition of the building) would be given instead to the society’s project of restoring the church.
Each of these points were contingent on the condition that the historical society successfully enter into a lease with VicTrack (the building, which sits next to Traralgon train station, is on land owned by the railways) by June 30, 2026, and that council will resolve to demolish the building should this deadline not be met.
Tyers’ Cr Darren Howe moved an alternate motion on this last point, that rather than demolish the building straight away, a further report be brought to council by the following meeting from the deadline (September 30), and would use those 10 public submissions to inform further options from there. This was seconded by Moe’s Cr Pugsley, and saw no opposition.
Cr Howe spoke to the motion, stating his hope for the community to be provided with certainty on the topic after several years of discussion. He mentioned the many in the community who “rallied when it appeared the church might be lost, and I encourage those same people now to contact the historical society and offer their support in restoring this important building.”
A similar tone was taken by Cr Pugsley, expressing herself as impressed with the suggestions provided within the submissions from the public, and that “it is a shame that it’s taken so long to get to this stage.”
Yallourn’s Cr Steph Morgan said the outcome showed what “genuine and thorough community consultation can look like, and the success that we can have out of that.”
Cr Morgan also found great benefit from the amended section, so that “a lease not be viable or easily sourced”, that there remain options besides simply destroying the heritage building, which “the community have very loudly and clearly shown is not an option they want to see.”
Finally, Deputy Mayor Dale Harriman (LoyYang) spoke in favour of the motion, personally thanking the historical society and giving praise for how well put together its submission was, in both its budget and clear structure.
“It wasn’t just a pie in the sky,” he said, “this is something that has a budget attached to it that has ideas for the future (…) a planned and staged implementation,” he said.
The motion was passed unanimously.
The project will be managed by a specific subcommittee of the Traralgon Historical Society, which will report to the society’s major committee on a monthly basis as the plan for the church progresses.
“We are well and truly daunted by the challenge, but nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Ms Johnson told the Express after the meeting.
“It’s significant to our community, and it might even be the oldest building left in the town.”
The Traralgon Historical Society currently has 70 members – and is one of the strongest and longest surviving societies in Victoria.
For now, the Old Methodist Church remains firmly on solid ground – with council, history, and the community all singing from the
same hymn sheet.
