In September 2022, a letter was placed in the mailbox of 180 homes across Moorooka, in Brisbane’s south.
It stated the homes — all part of the War Workers Housing Estate — had been placed under a Temporary Local Planning Instrument (TLPI), invoking a temporary heritage listing as council worked to make the overlay permanent.
Fixing a fence post or a front porch step, or painting a home became subject to a council application, at the expense of the owner.
Heritage expert Benjamin Gall said the neighbourhood-wide move was “unprecedented”.
“One hundred and eighty houses is certainly a large number, when a small cross-section of these houses would certainly satisfy the requirement for protecting that aspect of the suburb’s history,” Mr Gall said.
“It essentially makes your home, effective immediately, a heritage home,” said Brian Luckins, a Moorooka home owner.
“The TLPI came in without [warning or] consultation with any of the residents.”
Since then, the residents of the estate say they have been in a fight for the right to make their place their own — the right to make a home their castle.
“A castle is not a castle if you can’t fix a fence paling or a broken step, or a roof tile without getting approval, which might take you six months and cost $2,000,” home owner Joshua O’Reilly said.
An estate built to attract workers
The War Workers Housing Estate was Queensland’s first purpose-built estate of its kind.
The cottage-style homes were constructed in the mid-1940s to house the families of Rocklea Munitions Works employees in a bid to attract workers to the factory while Brisbane was suffering through a wartime accommodation shortage.
To this day, the estate has maintained its charm, with all homes subject to a character listing, which essentially prevented them from being demolished or dramatically developed.
Current day residents argue this character listing goes far enough, and that the heritage listing is an overreach.
Value lost
An information sheet provided to home owners states that undertaking minor repairs must be subject to a heritage exemption certificate, while more extensive changes would require development approval.
However, council later backflipped on this advice and provided a general exemption certificate to home owners instead, so they could undertake maintenance without stringent approvals.
Despite this, the effects of the TLPI were still felt hard by home owners.
“Our home’s value has gone down a lot,” Mr Luckins said.
“We know that because the state government re-valued our homes after the TLPI was implemented.
“They said because of the extra restrictions on zoning, we’ve lost 15 per cent of our home value.
“We went and valued all the homes that were affected and that came to $22.7 million worth of house value that we lost just by the TLPI and would stay lost if we make the TLPI permanent.”
Others in the estate said they’ve been living in limbo under the temporary heritage listing.
Residents to find out fate this weekend
“I think we are fighting the fight now because it really goes to show that council can just go to any suburb, earmark a certain area and just put ridiculous restrictions on them, without any consultation,” Mr O’Reilly said.
“Fighting this fight is really important because if council continues to do this around Brisbane, it doesn’t actually contribute to the heritage — it just creates a situation where people get their freedom stripped away instantaneously and have to fight to get it back.”
Their fight has paid off.
If 51 per cent of home owners oppose the change to heritage, Brisbane City Council said the listing will not proceed.
The deadline for submissions is Sunday, June 16.
“Some local residents have told us these protections are too onerous and should be wound back,” council’s city planning chair, Cr Adam Allan, said in a statement.
“If most of them do not support the proposed amendment, council will not proceed.”
Unclear process
Scott Bernoth is the proud owner of an eye-catching 1950s home in Moorooka, built outside the War Workers Estate.
Like his close neighbours, the first he knew of his property being earmarked for heritage listing was a letter in the mail.
Except there was no TLPI – the letter stated he had just over a month to consult with council before the heritage overlay became permanent on his character-listed home.
That consultation process also expires on Sunday, June 16.
He said the communication from council had been “abysmal”.
“There’s no straight information, and when you ask for details — like the cost of heritage processes — you seem to get nowhere,” he said.
Mr Bernoth said he’s still unsure why his home was heritage listed in the first place.
It’s unique, but it’s newer than most of the homes on his street.
“We have discussed with other people caught up in this thing, all of them sort of know that their house was done by so-and-so architect, or they had a famous family that owned it. We have none of those things,” Mr Bernoth said.
“[Council] needs to totally re-think the effect that this has on the owners of the properties.
“For residential properties, a month’s notice period is far too insufficient and they really need to go away and consider the psychological harm that this has on someone whose house is nominated out of the blue.”
Heritage experts are calling for more support to be provided to the owners of heritage-listed homes.
“Don’t charge property owners for the application fees to lodge a heritage approval for basic repairs,” Mr Gall said.
“[Council] needs to abolish fees for owners of heritage places to make development applications or exemptions.
“It needs to meet and communicate with owners long before they’re planning to [heritage] list.”
Posted , updated