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- 29 May 2002
Lithgow Cultural Heritage Partnership
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Speakers - Martin Mr Gerard
Business - Private Members Statements
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Page: 2191
Mr MARTIN (Bathurst) [6.05 p.m.]: The Lithgow Cultural Heritage Partnership is very important to the local community, and a committee—which I chair—has been established under the auspices of the Minister for Transport. The major cultural heritage stakeholders of Lithgow have combined to progress a project that potentially establishes the largest cultural heritage precinct in New South Wales. This precinct includes nationally significant engineering and industrial heritage sites that are linked by, and closely related to, railway infrastructure. The mission statement of this group is:
To create a viable commercial enterprise which will develop, market and coordinate the management of Lithgow's heritage.
The sites include the Lithgow blast furnace, which is now owned by Lithgow City Council, where the first steel was produced in Australia; the great Zig Zag Railway, which, when it was constructed in 1869, was one of the great engineering masterpieces of the time and still operates as a tourist railway; Eskbank House, an 1842 Georgian mansion that is now a museum run by the Lithgow and District Historical Society; the Lithgow State coalmine, which closed in the sixties but whose precinct has been developed as a mining museum; the Small Arms Museum at the old small arms factory, which comprises probably the best collection of small arms and rifles in Australia; and the Australian Defence Industries small arms factory site, which was the site of the first pre-World War I producing mine in Australia when it was established by American company Pratt and Whitney. Also included are many Lithgow city heritage townscapes controlled by Lithgow City Council.
The stakeholders working on this project include the State Rail Authority heritage branch, the Heritage Office of Planning New South Wales, Lithgow City Council—particularly its tourist office—the Zig Zag Railway, the Lithgow Chamber of Commerce and the Lithgow Business Enterprise Centre [BEC]. The project is being driven by Ray Christison, Manager of Lithgow BEC; Michael Wilson, Vice-President of the State Mine Heritage Park and Railway; and a host of other people representing the council, the chamber of commerce and business.
The railway works required to complete the project include restoration of Eskbank railway goods shed, the interlocking and connection of points at Eskbank to Eskbank yard box, and the restoration of Eskbank railway station, which is central to the project. The project will link the Zig Zag Railway to Lithgow and the mining museum. It is a unique railway project. Its completion will enable people to board a CityRail train in Sydney, travel to the bottom points, travel on the heritage steam train to Lithgow and then on the Zig Zag Railway from where they can take trips on the western line to Mudgee, Tarana and so on.
The project has exciting potential and it is important that the committee that I chair enjoys the co-operation of all stakeholders—and at this stage there is every indication that it does. I am particularly pleased to have the support of the Minister for Transport. Potential tourism products from the project include an additional major man-made tourist attraction for the Blue Mountains. It is important that we establish a link with the Blue Mountains, and Blue Mountains Tourism is involved with the committee. As the honourable member for Lismore will know, this is a friendly, warm country community with enormous tourism potential. Light and sound shows could be held either at the blast furnace site or at the State Mine Heritage Park and Railway.
This project, which is located in beautiful mountain country, has a close link with Sydney and its major tourism market. Through our gateway tourism project, which the Minister for Tourism has funded—Lithgow City Council is working on the construction of that unique gateway project—people coming from the Blue Mountains and the city will be provided with tourist information which will enable them to go west and north of New South Wales. Some of the other features of this program include Lithgow's role in the development of the Australian nation. I spoke earlier about the first steel that was produced in Australia, the first production line at the small arms factory and the major role that factory played during World War I and World War II in producing all our small arms. At the end of the day this exciting project will bring together what I consider to be the assets of the most significant industrial heritage site in Australia—my home town of Lithgow.
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