Shellharbour council says it had made every effort to ensure the safety of the heritage-listed Norris Homestead, which destroyed by a suspicious fire last Friday evening.
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Council staff have been assisting emergency services with the clean up of the site, estimating the cost of cleaning to be about $60,000.
This cost will include the salvage of any heritage items and removal of debris.
Staff have also been working with police on the investigation into the cause of the fire.
Police are treating the fire as suspicious, and have been told three males were observed running from the location shortly before the fire was discovered.
The council acquired the dilapidated late-Victorian timber house in 2012, and had not made any decision about the future of the building. First built around the 1870s, it was considered to be of local heritage significance, and “representative of of mid Victorian and early Federation era styles and their use by the rural Illawarra community”.
According to a council spokesperson, there had been “several instances of vandalism and theft at the site before the fire… As a result of the vandalism all asbestos that was at risk of being disturbed was removed in recent years.”
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
