At another fiery council meeting, held on Monday, Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery called for an “urgent review” into staff conduct and council practices, after an “Assessment of Heritage Significance” for the beachside park’s caretakers cottage was discovered two weeks ago.

The document – prepared by the council’s contracted heritage advisor Zoran Popovic – is dated January 24, 2015, but Cr Bradbery told the Mercury it only appeared on councillors’ online system on January 13.

The document discussed the historical role of caretaker in the park, as well as the creation of the cottage in the late 1920s.

It highlights that the cottage was likely occupied by the administrators of the Stuart Park temporary camp for migrants and refugees, which may have been inhabited by up to 3000 people in the late 1940s.

“The former Caretaker’s Cottage in Stuart Park is of significance for Wollongong area for historical, aesthetic, and social reasons and for its rarity and representativeness in the local area context,” the report concluded, recommending a local heritage listing.

Skydive has long used the old cottage as a check-in site for tourist jumpers, and the newly found paper suggests the building should be heritage listed.

With a new Skydive the Beach headquarters planned to be built adjacent to the cottage, the council recently lodged a new development application to knock the old building down.

The demolition application has now been withdrawn.

While the DA for the new building has been given the green light by the council (pending final approval from the Land and Environment Court, scheduled for February 7) Skydive the Beach still needs to negotiate a land lease and a licence to allow tandem skydivers to drop into the park. 

In addition to the above review, a majority of councillors voted on Monday that these contracts – along with the construction of any “replacement” Skydive headquarters – would be determined by a resolution of council, not by council staff. 

They also voted to “reaffirm” their 2015 commitment to allow skydiving in the public park and asked to receive an “urgent briefing” on staff actions and legal implications involving the leases and licenses, as well as management plans for Stuart Park.

Cr Bradbery asked staff to report back to councillors by next Monday and deliver a full report in March.

The briefing will cover any impacts the he information in the “Assessment of Heritage Significance” report may have had on the assessment of Skydive the Beach’s plans for a new building.

Additionally, councillors have asked staff to “provide a dedicated single point of web access to relevant background documents pertaining to the Skydive [the] Beach proposal”. 

“Late last week senior staff at council became aware of a previously unseen heritage assessment which was undertaken on the Caretakers Cottage in 2015.

“The assessment suggests the building may have local heritage value.

“Council has made the decision to withdraw the Development Application for demolition until the implications of this report can be fully assessed.

“It should be noted that the Development Application which has been withdrawn is specifically for the demolition of the Caretakers Cottage only, and does not relate to other Development Applications currently being considered in the Stuart Park area including the proposed new Skydive the Beach building and public toilets.

“Relevant heritage matters have been considered for that application as part of the reports considered by IHAP during that process.”

“A formal review is underway to determine how the presence of the Heritage Assessment was not recorded in Council’s records system at the time of receipt and why the matter was not escalated.”