Engineers assessment report for the Mount Gambier Roundhouse

Friday, 22 June 2018

The Mount Gambier Roundhouse was damaged by fire several years ago and due to safety concerns is due to be demolished later this month.

The site is owned by the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government and the damage sustained by the fire was considerable, which has made the site unsafe.

Due to the unsafe nature of the site following the fire, DPTI erected fencing, isolated the site from any public access and commissioned an independent engineering review of the building which identified that:

• The building is not structurally safe.
• The engineers were of the view that the building could not reasonably be rehabilitated.
• The majority of the roof is no longer structurally sound.
• A risk that roof sheets could be lifted off in high wind events exists.
• The review ultimately recommended that the building be demolished.

As this is a local heritage building, DPTI considered available options prior to proceeding to development approval to demolish the building. Part of that approval process considered the viability of returning the building to its original state, with approval being granted to demolish the building.

Development approval (allowing for demolition) was granted by the Minister’s delegate on 17 February 2017. Demolition is scheduled for 25 June 2018.

As part of the demolition process, DPTI’s contractor will be endeavouring to salvage as much of the material as possible. Additionally, the applicant is required to prepare a “systematic high resolution photographic record of the structure… to be retained and permanently archived by the owner (DPTI)  with copies to be provided to the City of Mount Gambier, the local history centre (Les Hill Collection) and to the National Railway Museum at Port Adelaide”.

A copy of the report is available here.