A historic cattle-showing shed in central west NSW will be pulled apart piece by piece and put back together again after the state government agreed to fully fund the nearly half-a-million-dollar cost of the project.
Key points:
- The NSW government will spend $410,000 to dismantle and reassemble a 70-year-old cattle showing pavilion at the Bathurst showground
- The building was deemed structurally unsafe and closed to the public in 2020
- The family that built it lobbied for the reconstruction after finding out it could have been demolished
The Ern Prior Pavilion was built at the Bathurst showground in 1952 by three generations of the Prior family using timber milled on their property.
The structure was used for the Royal Bathurst Show and other community events for decades before it was deemed unsafe and closed to the public in early 2020.
“It was quite traumatic, we were given three days when we found out there was a notice on the fence to say it was being demolished,” Marge Prior said.
Marge Prior says she was shocked when she found out the building could have been demolished.(ABC News: Hugh Hogan)
With support from the Bathurst community, the family was able to stop the original decision while the prospect of a reconstruction was explored.
The state government, which will face an election in 10 weeks’ time, has agreed to allocate $410,000 to fully fund the project from the Crown Reserves Improvement Fund.
Deputy Premier Paul Toole said it was a simple, unpretentious building with rural character.
“It will actually be the same size, it will actually be on the same footprint but at the end of the day it’s going to be a building that is made safe and usable once again,” he said.
Brett Kenworthy from the Royal Bathurst Show said the new shed would have multiple uses and would not just be used for cattle.
“This building is one that we have to save regardless of how we’re going to use it,” he said.