Orphan museum plea
THE seller of the former Geelong Orphanage Asylum and Common School has defended its sale to a private buyer over a rival bid to turn it into a national orphanage museum.
The Australian Orphanage Museum last month temporarily relocated to McKillop St in Geelong after being based in Sydney for the past 19 years.
The Federal Government pledged $2 million to operators Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) for a new museum site and memorial.
With Geelong having the most orphanages outside a capital city, CLAN had its eye on the Old Geelong Orphanage Asylum and Common School on McCurdy Rd — which was due to go to auction last Saturday.
But its hopes of securing the heritage-listed building were dashed after it was sold to a private buyer for around $3 million prior to auction.
Seller Dean Montgomery said he felt sympathy for CLAN but the successful offer was almost double its offer.
“We put it out to the open market and everybody had the opportunity to participate,” he said.
“I met the people from CLAN two weeks ago to give them a private viewing of the site again, I’ve done that multiple times and I’ve even been to their museum in Geelong. I’ve bent over backwards to help them but right up until decision time we gave them multiple opportunities to bid but they ended up offering us less than half what we sold it for.
“She (CLAN CEO Leonie Sheedy) said to me ‘Don’t be greedy and accept our offer’ but it was just a straight commercial decision. The market ultimately decides what something sells for.”
Ms Sheedy has now urged Premier Daniel Andrews to step in and stop the sale.
“It’s really significant and it could be a memorial to all those children that passed through that orphanage from 1854 to 1933,” she told ABC radio. “It’s appropriate that an orphanage museum is in an old orphanage.
“We offered $1.5 million just for the orphanage but the vendor, who really only paid $750,000 in July, ended up getting $2.9 million for both buildings.
“We’d like the Victorian Government to care about our history and use their compulsory acquisition powers to gain this property.
“It’s too important to be held in an individual’s hands.”
Lara MP John Eren said he had raised the orphanage museum’s plight with Child Protection Minister Luke Donnellan and asked him to investigate what options were available to the Government.