Elsie Adamo
THE Mount Gambier City Council is turning to the community for how to best use the old railway station building.
Following renovations last year, the building has been restored and is almost ready for reactivation.
Further work will be completed before July 2022 on the public toilet amenities and modernisation of the air conditioning and ventilation.
City Growth General Manager Tim Coote said he was hopeful the community will be able to identify the best use for the structure.
“We are going to go out to market to get a sense of what ideas are out there,” he said.
“We are really doing a market sounding, wanting to reach out as much as we can.
“It is almost the opposite of what we are currently doing, to go out to the market and see what comes back, as opposed to saying what we want and why.
“It is an open-ended call to sound out some ideas.”
Mr Coote said he did not want to venture any guesses of what the space may be, and encouraged creative solutions.
“The building is obviously a fantastic building in and of itself, and the space in front of the building has been lovely adopted by the community.” he said.
“We are only a matter of a few hundred metres away from the main corner in the centre of Mount Gambier, and then how we activate the pathways between them offers real opportunity to the community.”
Any ideas for the site will have to be mindful of the structure’s heritage listed status, so cannot include changes to the building itself.
Mr Coote outlined any ideas should consider some key criteria such as connection to CBD, honouring the buildings history and enhancing the Railway Lands precinct.
Mount Gambier City Council Mayor Lynette Martin said it was wonderful the site will be able to retain its history, while making better use of the space.
“It is an interesting way to do it, to go out and see what is available,” Ms Martin said.
“There could be ideas out there we are not aware of, and people see potential for the building that might fit perfectly in the space, so it will be a really interesting process.”
Concerns were raised at a council meeting in December about vandalism to the site, but Mayor Martin said she was not troubled about a heightened risk of vandalism than anywhere else in town.
At time of print there was no current vandalism or graffiti at the site.
The initial market sounding process will open in the first quarter of 2022 for a period of eight weeks.
Suitable candidates will be invited to further explore the commerciality of their concept in collaboration with Council.
