Historic homes ignored

McCandlish House

Lisa feels forgotten, and unforgiving.

Her home, McCandlish house, is one of eight in Bruce Street, Kensington, she says have been ignored by the designers of the East West Link.

“These houses are within a few tens of metres of where this road is proposed to go, plus massive intrusive off ramps for industrial truck traffic,” she said.

When she asked Linking Melbourne Authority why her street was not mentioned in the impact statement, she was told “we thought it was all industrial there”.

“Entire communities have been ignored … and impacts to those communities are untested, undocumented and unacknowledged,” Lisa said.

Bruce Street runs between the Moonee Ponds Creek and the Allied Mills building – an imposing landmark.  Houses in the street, Kenealys houses and McCandlish House, have recognized heritage value.

Red marks McCandlish house. Blue marks the project boundary.

McCandlish house was built in 1889 and has been declared architecturally and historically significant to Kensington.  The house and stable yard are vestiges of the horse trade and goods production over a century ago.

Lisa believes the heritage significance of the area will be lost. “There is a lovely 1930’s building on Bruce St which … ought to be saved.  It is beautiful.”

Lisa and her family bought their Bruce Street home in April this year after living in North Melbourne for a decade.

The project boundary of the East West Link will be less than 100 metres from the door.  Two blocks nearby will be used for undefined “construction purposes”.

If the project is completed, part of Bruce Street will run beneath exit and entry ramps from Arden Street to the viaduct running adjacent to CityLink to Footscray.

Lisa has submitted a 37 page document to the Assessment Committee responsible for advising the planning minister on the project.

Submissions are due 5pm Thursday 12 December.

Bruce Street and the Allied Mills via Google

Aerial map via Google.