Ballarat’s arts community has weighed into the debate over the city’s beleaguered signal boxes, vowing to form a committee to put pressure on responsible entities VicTrack and V/Line.
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The city’s historians recently raised the alarm on the decrepit state of the signal boxes on Mair, Humffray and Lydiard streets, which have fallen prey to vandals in recent years.
VicTrack last week told The Courier that it planned to carry out works on the Mair Street box, while V/Line said it did not plan to restore the box at the Lydiard Street.
This week, prominent Ballarat artists including graphic designer Peter Sparkman, photographer Aldona Kmiec and researcher-curator Amy Tsilemanis, will meet to formulate a strategy to ensure the city’s heritage signal boxes are preserved into the future.
Mr Sparkman has been concerned about the signal boxes for some years and has formulated several plans for their re-use, including as museums that could be opened during events such as the Ballarat Heritage Weekend.
He said he had an emotional connection to the signal boxes since childhood in the last 1960s, when the signal boxes were still actively used.
“There’s not a lot of things you can do with the insides because they’re not wide and the levers take up space,” he said.
“(But) they could be historical museums, maybe even open for the Heritage Weekend. The trainspotters would love it.”
Ms Kmiec suggested the Ballarart arts community set up a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the signal boxes repair. However, Mr Sparkman said that would be of little use.
The arts community has garnered support from Ballarat councillor Samantha McIntosh.
The council had previously voted to commit money to restoring the signal boxes, only to come up against the fact it was not the responsible body.
Cr McIntosh said she would meet with the artists’ group this week.
“They’re spectacular pieces of Ballarat history and it’s important that we as a community work out what we can to ensure they’re preserved appropriately,” she said.
“We don’t own them, they’re not ours, they’re owned by VicTrack, and VicTrack are therefore responsible for the maintenance for them. Because they’re considered active, they need to be available for emergencies, so we don’t have the ability to consider adaptive reuse.”