As I rode down Five Islands Road, skateboard under feet, with death wobbles, the massive silhouette of the Port Stack blocked the sun and fused my memory in youth and place. I attended Port Kembla High School and now I’m an architect living in Basel, Switzerland.
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The Port Kembla Stack is an icon of the Illawarra, and a feat of engineering. We can collectively only point out a few architectural icons in the region, so I was naturally shocked to find that the old copper smelter stack is due to be demolished, and that there is no thought into its historical preservation.
This may be a good time to collectively get all architects together from the Illawarra – a voice that acts as one for the architectural community. I ask the question whether to simply tear it down would cost the same as maintaining and restoring it.
I think we should wait for an investor that is willing to preserve our heritage before moving further.
May I add Queen Victoria Building was in 1959 threatened with demolition – imagine Sydney without her. Now imagine Wollongong with out ‘‘the stack’’. I can’t as it was burnt into memory.
