‘Stories that can continue to be told’: Ngunnawal’s Gold Creek Homestead on the market

The Gold Creek Homestead in Ngunnawal is on the market via request for tender and is waiting for someone to give the 4.8-hectare site the loving care it deserves. 

The homestead was acquired by the Suburban Land Agency in 1998 and has remained vacant for a number of years. 

“It has a historic value and that’s really important to the community and it’s important that the stories of this homestead can continue to be told as it is redeveloped,” a Suburban Land Agency spokesperson said.

The homestead dates back to 1860 and had passed through a number of hands before the ACT government acquired it and the surrounding farmland.

The property was used as a venue to hold functions and fundraisers in the 1960s before it used for grazing sheep and cattle until 1983.

The site was considered to be heritage-listed several times, but the ACT Heritage Council found no formal heritage value for the property.

Despite this, tenders will be required to retain or repurpose some elements of the site including the slab hut, which was built in 1861, and the stone cottage and kitchen which date back to 1883.

“These are the oldest parts of the homestead and are more valuable to the community,” the spokesperson said.

“Tenders that incorporate an adaptive reuse strategy for those elements will be looked at favourably.”

The Suburban Land Agency attempted to take the site to market in 2018 but took it off the market and opted to facilitate a community engagement process last year in a bid to capture the views of community members and stakeholders on how they wanted the site to be used.

The result was a precinct development brief revolving around five key themes that will be expected from the potential owners of the homestead: paying homage to the site’s past; creating a caring, inclusive and safe place; retaining the visual character of the place; being sustainable; and ongoing involvement of the community in the development.

The panel also held a strong view that the site should be transformed into a residential aged care or community facility. The panel’s brief noted that the redevelopment should “meet the needs of vulnerable people including aged, young, veterans, disabled and/or disadvantaged”.

“The panel’s precinct development brief is the core of this tender,” the spokesperson said.

The successful tenderer would also need to meet a green star rating of five, a minimum 30 per cent tree canopy across the site – in accordance with the ACT government living infrastructure plan – and build public cycling and walking paths throughout the property.

“We want to avoid it being a gated community … at least part of the site will have public access for the broader community to use in the future,” the spokesperson said.

“We want to make it accessible and a destination for everyone in the community.”

The ACT government is accepting tenders until September 10.