The old Wonthaggi tech site reimagined by AI, complete with gallery, park and library. Perhaps a little beyond our modest means at this stage, but we can dream big.
THE old Wonthaggi Secondary College site has been vacant since 2019, when the school moved to a new campus in McKenzie Street.
Despite repeated attempts by the community to get something happening, bickering between Bass Coast Shire Council and the State Government has stalled any progress on the site, which is still managed by the Victorian Department of Education.
But after years of stalemate, the momentum seems to be building on several fronts.
Despite repeated attempts by the community to get something happening, bickering between Bass Coast Shire Council and the State Government has stalled any progress on the site, which is still managed by the Victorian Department of Education.
But after years of stalemate, the momentum seems to be building on several fronts.
In last year’s budget the council allocated $350,000 to start work on planning for the site.
A new community precinct has now been earmarked as one of the council’s top five advocacy priorities for securing state and federal funding over the next three years.
There are conflicting reports on the state of the buildings. Some say the substantial brick building on the corner is still in reasonable order. Others say it’s only fit for demolition.
Now the council wants to hear our ideas on what this prime site could become. The Post asked for ideas to get the conversation rolling.
A new community precinct has now been earmarked as one of the council’s top five advocacy priorities for securing state and federal funding over the next three years.
There are conflicting reports on the state of the buildings. Some say the substantial brick building on the corner is still in reasonable order. Others say it’s only fit for demolition.
Now the council wants to hear our ideas on what this prime site could become. The Post asked for ideas to get the conversation rolling.
From housing to the arts, locals ponder town’s prime site.
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Brett Tessari
It’s such a big open space it’s got the potential to be anything. I’d love to see a cultural centre – a bit like Berninneit. I like the idea of community housing at the McKenzie Street end. And I’d like a bit of a lawn area. Brett Tessari is Bass Coast Mayor and a former student of Wonthaggi High School. |
Ideas welcome Have your say through an interactive engagement on Engage Bass Coast. Drop‑in sessions will be held at Wishart's Reserve from 10am-2pm on Saturday, May 2, and Wednesday, May 6. Drop in any time during those sessions to speak with staff and talk about your ideas. |
Wendy Crellin
It’s central, a lovely area with the council buildings, courthouse and post office. It’s a big site and would be ideal for an ats complex with workshops and a regional gallery. That would give us the credibility to loan works and receive works.
Part of our mission statement as the Robert Smith advocacy group is a regional gallery to house the collection. We’ve got a significant collection that other galleries would envy.
I would like to see a wing of a new art gallery called the Robert Smith Wing to house his collection, including art works and books.
Wendy Crellin is a former councillor and member of the advocacy group for the Robert Smith art collection gifted to Wonthaggi.
Beth Banks
Public and social housing with all the features of excellent design, sustainability, orientation, and awareness of the needs of the people who will live there.
A new library with outside seating amid appropriate indigenous vegetation. This would provide some small education or meeting areas. Walkways.
Art space to be determined by others.
Beth Banks is a member of Bass Coast Housing Matters.
Irene Williams
I’m for a community space, a library, an art gallery. I think there’s room for a small park with little gardens and walks, and a café. I’m not in favour of public housing on the site but I think there’s room for a house for a live-in caretaker.
People are jumping and down about retaining the buildings. Anyone who taught there would know the ongoing problems. It was one thing after another. To keep them going would be ongoing costs for ratepayers.
I would not like to see it sold off to private enterprise. I would get up and stamp my feet!
Irene Williams is a former pupil and teacher at Wonthaggi Tech School, and secretary of the Wonthaggi & District Historical Society.
Ross Farnell
We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop this large centrally located CBD site as a Creative Community Hub – a neighbourhood gathering place for our whole community.
Imagine a vibrant cultural town precinct with an emphasis on art-making and producing spaces, building a thriving creative economy and providing opportunities for our youth, while becoming an active, regional cultural tourism hub.
This cultural place would benefit from co-location with other needed community and public uses such as social and worker housing, public services and hospitality.
Imagine a thriving place in the heart of Wonthaggi that stays open ALL weekend and evenings, and is welcoming to residents and visitors alike – where the arts, creative businesses, public spaces, cafes and bars come together - a true creative neighbourhood.
The hub would become home for our cultural groups and institutions such as the library and the Robert Smith art collection; and provide studio spaces for visual arts, performance, music, film, new media and game design, graphic design and more.
Ross Farnell is a cultural consultant.
Jeni Jobe
I think developing maker spaces for the crafts we are rapidly loosing would have significant value for our region. Think of Metalworking, Glass Blowing, Tool Making, Tile Making, Textiles and more. The support of these trades would bring real cultural enrichment in our region and make Wonthaggi a thriving centre for the arts. The site itself as a prior tech would have class room layouts and assets in the ground that could be developed up into genuine Maker Spaces. It has a chance of turning Wonthaggi into a true cultural destination and there is nothing else like it in our part of the state.
Jeni Jobe is an artist and member of Wonthaggi Old Tech Creative Hub (WOTCH)
It’s central, a lovely area with the council buildings, courthouse and post office. It’s a big site and would be ideal for an ats complex with workshops and a regional gallery. That would give us the credibility to loan works and receive works.
Part of our mission statement as the Robert Smith advocacy group is a regional gallery to house the collection. We’ve got a significant collection that other galleries would envy.
I would like to see a wing of a new art gallery called the Robert Smith Wing to house his collection, including art works and books.
Wendy Crellin is a former councillor and member of the advocacy group for the Robert Smith art collection gifted to Wonthaggi.
Beth Banks
Public and social housing with all the features of excellent design, sustainability, orientation, and awareness of the needs of the people who will live there.
A new library with outside seating amid appropriate indigenous vegetation. This would provide some small education or meeting areas. Walkways.
Art space to be determined by others.
Beth Banks is a member of Bass Coast Housing Matters.
Irene Williams
I’m for a community space, a library, an art gallery. I think there’s room for a small park with little gardens and walks, and a café. I’m not in favour of public housing on the site but I think there’s room for a house for a live-in caretaker.
People are jumping and down about retaining the buildings. Anyone who taught there would know the ongoing problems. It was one thing after another. To keep them going would be ongoing costs for ratepayers.
I would not like to see it sold off to private enterprise. I would get up and stamp my feet!
Irene Williams is a former pupil and teacher at Wonthaggi Tech School, and secretary of the Wonthaggi & District Historical Society.
Ross Farnell
We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop this large centrally located CBD site as a Creative Community Hub – a neighbourhood gathering place for our whole community.
Imagine a vibrant cultural town precinct with an emphasis on art-making and producing spaces, building a thriving creative economy and providing opportunities for our youth, while becoming an active, regional cultural tourism hub.
This cultural place would benefit from co-location with other needed community and public uses such as social and worker housing, public services and hospitality.
Imagine a thriving place in the heart of Wonthaggi that stays open ALL weekend and evenings, and is welcoming to residents and visitors alike – where the arts, creative businesses, public spaces, cafes and bars come together - a true creative neighbourhood.
The hub would become home for our cultural groups and institutions such as the library and the Robert Smith art collection; and provide studio spaces for visual arts, performance, music, film, new media and game design, graphic design and more.
Ross Farnell is a cultural consultant.
Jeni Jobe
I think developing maker spaces for the crafts we are rapidly loosing would have significant value for our region. Think of Metalworking, Glass Blowing, Tool Making, Tile Making, Textiles and more. The support of these trades would bring real cultural enrichment in our region and make Wonthaggi a thriving centre for the arts. The site itself as a prior tech would have class room layouts and assets in the ground that could be developed up into genuine Maker Spaces. It has a chance of turning Wonthaggi into a true cultural destination and there is nothing else like it in our part of the state.
Jeni Jobe is an artist and member of Wonthaggi Old Tech Creative Hub (WOTCH)
Mark Robertson
The trade wing along the Watt Street boundary could easily be reactivated as a trade training centre, teaching youths the basics of working with their hands – pre-apprenticeship courses on how to use tools, OHS and such.
Currently trainees need to travel up to the big smoke repeatedly and this can be draining to a youngster trying to survive on a trainee’s pitiful wage.
Gather them together and import a teacher, or utilise some of our local tradespeople. Teach them about managing money, get them to engage with their future employers and perhaps recondition the old building as part of their studies.
Wonthaggi is beginning to establish 5000 new homes and related infrastructure and usefully skilled workers with local knowledge and networks will be handy. Some of them may even be able to purchase the homes as time goes by.
Mark Robertson is a former student of Wonthaggi High School
John Mutsaers
The portable tech rooms are a bit decrepit so they would make ideal artists’ studios. It wouldn’t matter if people spilled a bit of paint. They don’t need anything but the power on.
I think it should include such areas where creatives could meet, a restful place where we could generate ideas and test them among fellow creatives. Open studios for public engagement.
John Mutsaers is an Inverloch artist and former member of the council’s arts and culture advisory committee
Terry Allen
Make the tech workshop area into workrooms for artisans. And let’s build our own library and save the money we’re paying on rental for our library.
Terry Allen, OAM, is a former student of Wonthaggi Tech School.
Barbara Moje
Reconfiguring the buildings to publicly accessible buildings, including, for example a gallery, a library, meeting spaces, cafes, and small arts business incubators, would reactivate the site around the clock and enable former pupils, teachers and parents to ‘rediscover’ their history and connection with the place.
The McBride St frontage should retain a public/community function with activity regularly spilling over onto the lawns of Wishart Reserve and also connecting across the reserve, re-activating the old post office.
The rear playing fields on McKenzie Street would be suitable for a much-needed housing component featuring a diversity of smaller units, sorely missing in Wonthaggi.
I can see the Watt Street corner activated with businesses such as cafes and small shops associated with the creative activities on the site to draw people in.
My wildest dream is for a cosy bar, preferably on the roof top overlooking our fair city, with quiet jazz playing, intimate lighting and the good company of the many friends I have made in our area. There is nowhere like this anywhere around here at the moment!
Barbara Moje is an architect and member of Wonthaggi Old Tech Creative Hub (WOTCH)
Rochelle Halstead
It’s heartwarming to see the former campus a step closer to its second act. This site holds decades of memories and any plan for its future must be handled with compassion for that history. I am genuinely excited that the community, the people who walked these halls and live in these streets, will be the ones to shape its next chapter.
True engagement must allow every voice, from long-term residents to young families, to be heard and valued. It’s an incredible opportunity to transform a vacant space into a vibrant heart for Wonthaggi, ensuring that whatever rises here honours our shared past.
Rochelle Halstead is a Bass Coast councillor and Liberal candidate for Bass
Mat Morgan
The challenge isn’t what to do with the site, it’s how to find the money to develop it. Locals don’t want it sold off. This public asset should stay in public hands.
If our state government was brave enough to introduce a levy on bank profits, or our federal government brave enough to tax our gas exports- we could afford to fund infrastructure projects like this.
This site is so large, it could be a library, art gallery, community space and more. We just need the fat cats in Sprint St or Canberra to provide the funding our community deserves.
Mat Morgan is a Bass Coast councillor and Greens candidate for Eastern Victoria.
The trade wing along the Watt Street boundary could easily be reactivated as a trade training centre, teaching youths the basics of working with their hands – pre-apprenticeship courses on how to use tools, OHS and such.
Currently trainees need to travel up to the big smoke repeatedly and this can be draining to a youngster trying to survive on a trainee’s pitiful wage.
Gather them together and import a teacher, or utilise some of our local tradespeople. Teach them about managing money, get them to engage with their future employers and perhaps recondition the old building as part of their studies.
Wonthaggi is beginning to establish 5000 new homes and related infrastructure and usefully skilled workers with local knowledge and networks will be handy. Some of them may even be able to purchase the homes as time goes by.
Mark Robertson is a former student of Wonthaggi High School
John Mutsaers
The portable tech rooms are a bit decrepit so they would make ideal artists’ studios. It wouldn’t matter if people spilled a bit of paint. They don’t need anything but the power on.
I think it should include such areas where creatives could meet, a restful place where we could generate ideas and test them among fellow creatives. Open studios for public engagement.
John Mutsaers is an Inverloch artist and former member of the council’s arts and culture advisory committee
Terry Allen
Make the tech workshop area into workrooms for artisans. And let’s build our own library and save the money we’re paying on rental for our library.
Terry Allen, OAM, is a former student of Wonthaggi Tech School.
Barbara Moje
Reconfiguring the buildings to publicly accessible buildings, including, for example a gallery, a library, meeting spaces, cafes, and small arts business incubators, would reactivate the site around the clock and enable former pupils, teachers and parents to ‘rediscover’ their history and connection with the place.
The McBride St frontage should retain a public/community function with activity regularly spilling over onto the lawns of Wishart Reserve and also connecting across the reserve, re-activating the old post office.
The rear playing fields on McKenzie Street would be suitable for a much-needed housing component featuring a diversity of smaller units, sorely missing in Wonthaggi.
I can see the Watt Street corner activated with businesses such as cafes and small shops associated with the creative activities on the site to draw people in.
My wildest dream is for a cosy bar, preferably on the roof top overlooking our fair city, with quiet jazz playing, intimate lighting and the good company of the many friends I have made in our area. There is nowhere like this anywhere around here at the moment!
Barbara Moje is an architect and member of Wonthaggi Old Tech Creative Hub (WOTCH)
Rochelle Halstead
It’s heartwarming to see the former campus a step closer to its second act. This site holds decades of memories and any plan for its future must be handled with compassion for that history. I am genuinely excited that the community, the people who walked these halls and live in these streets, will be the ones to shape its next chapter.
True engagement must allow every voice, from long-term residents to young families, to be heard and valued. It’s an incredible opportunity to transform a vacant space into a vibrant heart for Wonthaggi, ensuring that whatever rises here honours our shared past.
Rochelle Halstead is a Bass Coast councillor and Liberal candidate for Bass
Mat Morgan
The challenge isn’t what to do with the site, it’s how to find the money to develop it. Locals don’t want it sold off. This public asset should stay in public hands.
If our state government was brave enough to introduce a levy on bank profits, or our federal government brave enough to tax our gas exports- we could afford to fund infrastructure projects like this.
This site is so large, it could be a library, art gallery, community space and more. We just need the fat cats in Sprint St or Canberra to provide the funding our community deserves.
Mat Morgan is a Bass Coast councillor and Greens candidate for Eastern Victoria.