Heritage-listed huts at UOW's Innovation Campus once used for a migrant hostel will have to be relocated to make way for the Dragons High Performance Centre.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Quonset and Nissen huts formed part of what was then known as the Balgownie Migrant Hostel, which operated between 1951 and 1982.
The remaining huts now house the Alumni Bookshop and Kids Uni childcare centre.
As part of the proposed high performance centre, the University of Wollongong has lodged a development application with Wollongong City Council to relocate the huts.
According to the statement of environmental effects, the huts will be moved 150 metres to the south of their current location.
"The proposed site is currently vacant with temporary at-grade (gravel) car parking and a small maintenance/groundskeeping compound, with the previous structures removed in 2020 with the demolition of redundant student housing buildings," the statement said.
The new location will still be within the boundaries of the former Balgownie Migrant Hostel site and the huts will be reinstalled in their current configuration.
As well as needing the space to build the Dragons' facility, the statement also identifies a risk of damage to the structures due to flooding.
"The location of the existing huts is currently subject to flooding in the 1 per cent average exceedance probability event, with flooding expected to become more frequent and intense as a result of climate change and sea level rise," the application stated.
"Without intervention, the Nissen and Quonset huts will be subject to flooding on a more severe and frequent basis."
The development application said leaving the huts in their current position "would likely result in the eventual discontinuation of use of the huts and a fall into disrepair".
The huts will be deconstructed and then moved to the new site, where they will be put back together.
The new site will also offer 28 parking spaces - which is more than what is available at the huts' current location.
Work on the Dragons' High Performance Centre would begin immediately following the relocation of the huts, meaning no landscaping work would need to be done to the site.
The development application is on public exhibition until January 30.
Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
