Residents rally to save Old Castlemaine Gaol

Passions ran high over the proposed sale of the Old Castlemaine Gaol when more than 100 people turned out to speak to their submissions at a special meeting of Mount Alexander Shire Council last night (Monday, September 24).

The meeting, at Castlemaine Town Hall, went for over four-and-a-half hours and it had everything - tension, anger, frustration, logical arguments, humour and an enormous amount of passion for Castlemaine's rich goldfields heritage.

And the old gaol on the hill - with its stunning views of the town and vice versa, was lauded as perhaps Castlemaine's most iconic and symbolic building of all.

Residents stood time and time again to slam the "ridiculous", "obscene" and even "offensive" price - $500,000 plus GST - that council is willing to accept for the historic building and its surrounding vast open space. The old gaol was recently valued at $1.2 million.

Residents also repeatedly raised the point that once the old gaol is gone, it is gone forever and that will change the character of Castlemaine forever.

Some residents implored and even begged councillors to reconsider selling the old gaol to a local consortium of private developers, which to date has indicated it wants to subdivide part of the site (on the eastern slope) but won't release details of its plans until after the council has made its final decision and signed on the dotted line.

Perhaps the biggest push at last night's meeting was for council to defer tomorrow night's "11th hour" decision until after next month's council elections.

Council has indicated it will decide on whether to proceed with the proposed sale of the Old Castlemaine Gaol at its meeting tonight, Tuesday, September 25, at Sutton Grange Hall.

The meeting is the last chance council has got to make any major decisions before the next election on October 27; the council goes into `caretaker’ mode at midnight tonight.

Council received 332 submissions on its proposal to sell the old gaol – 316 were opposed and 16 were in favour.

Only one person spoke in favour of the proposed sale at last night's meeting; in contrast, the majority of the opposed submitters took their turn at the microphone.

Applause from the gallery was constant throughout the night and it was great to see that those opposed to the sale gave the only speaker in favour of the sale a strong round of applause for her brave effort of speaking in favour on the night.

Interestingly, the officer’s recommendation in the agenda for tonight's council meeting at Sutton Grange does not take a side for or against the sale; instead, it requests that council `determine on the matter’.

It will be left up to six councillors to decide the fate of the old gaol tonight – Cr Michael Redden is overseas at the moment.

To date, the council has voted unanimously to proceed with the sale but some intense campaigning by the Friends of the Old Castlemaine Gaol might see tonight’s decision go down to the wire.

The Mayor, Cr Janet Cropley, could be forced to decide the matter with her casting vote if the decision is deadlocked at three apiece.

It would be a monumental vote if it came down to that so close to the election but Cr Cropley has never been one to back down from something she believes in.