Heritage home’s new life

A DERELICT old Hobart building — which some heritage experts say is as significant as Port Arthur or the Female Factory — is getting an artsy new lease on life.

The former Queen’s Orphan School for Boys at St Johns Park in New Town, which is more than 180 years old, is set to be transformed by local arts company Kickstart Arts to become the Creative Living Centre community cultural precinct.

Designed by noted colonial architect John Lee Archer and built using convict labour between 1831 and 1833, the orphanage housed hundreds of homeless and destitute boys in harsh conditions. Records show that in 1848 there were 463 children living there.

The Queen’s Orphan School closed in 1879, with the building then used as the New Town Charitable Institution. It later became St Johns Park Hospital, which closed in 1994, and has now been empty for several years.

Refurbishment work will begin this month, after Kickstart Arts secured $396,000 in federal and state funding. The first phase of the project is expected to be completed in the second half of next year.

“By repurposing this as a community arts and culture centre we are breathing new life into the building,” Kickstart Arts artistic director Jami Bladel said.

“The Creative Living Centre will house a growing community developing new ways of taking action to improve Tasmanian’s health, wellbeing, and working together on creative solutions for living with the reality of climate change.”

Kickstart Arts will celebrate the start of the building’s new chapter by holding an open day and free public forum, Disturbing Echoes: Understand Our Past To Create A Better Future, on July 15. Go to www.kickstartarts.org for details.