The Berrima Gaol is a key feature of the town - its a major heritage complex in a heritage town that has always guarded that heritage fiercely.
The proposal to knock a hole in the main gaol wall must be rejected as it will significantly harm the physical presence of those walls which have been a major aspect of the town's character since they were built almost 2 centuries ago now.
Heritage means keeping things intact into the future, not Disneyising them for the moment.
Recently built homes have been required to adhere to the prevailing aesthetic & the Berrima Hotel proposal should do too
The architecture as presented is banal & not in keeping with the asthetic that everyone else in town has been required to uphold
This will be a major structure in the town & it behoves Blue Sox to do better - they can & they should
There are other sites in town which will conceivably follow - the Anglican Church facing an uncertain future is one, it's recently sold glebe site is another
Allowing pedestrian development will greenlight for future ones to the detriment of the whole townscape
I have a personal financial state in the look & feel of the town - I run a small shop & - like all the businesses in town - reliant on the visitors who come to enjoy the ambience & we regularly listen to them bemoaning the loss of ambience in nearby locations swamped by development
Berrima can & has to avoid that
When other places are subsumed what Berrima has becomes even more valuable
Berrima Hotel can be an asset to the town but only if it is in keeping with what already is

I support the tasteful re use of the jail as a hotel provided the design is in keeping with the village appeal and isn’t unsightly . Plenty of parking is a must.

Berrima is a small quiet rural village of heritage significance
It is the last intact surviving Georgian village on the Australian mainland.
In 1831 the Surveyor- General Thomas Mitchell chose Berrima as the administrative Centre for the southern part of the colony of New South Wales
As a consequence In 1836 the Gaol was built ( largely by convict Labour from local sandstone).
The Courthouse, north of the Gaol (also constructed using local sandstone) was completed in 1835.
South of the gaol the two storied The Surveyor General Inn was completed in 1837. It remains today as “Australia’s oldest continuously licensed inn”
There are additionally many heritage listed buildings in the village: built originally as inns, banks or a post office: today these are almost all private homes.
The Gaol, The Court House and The Surveyor-General Inn (“the pub”) are at the centre of the Berrima Conservation Area. It is here that BlueSox wants to put its development

Berrima was laid out according to The Hoddle Plan. It’s history is held also in its many unspoilt heritage buildings. Berrima reflects too the history of the early colony ofNew South Wales.

Berrima attracts many tourists- mainly at weekends. These visitors come because of Berrima’s unspoilt heritage and to experience “ the living presence of the past in modern life”.
This will be lost if the proposed development were to be approved.

From Harpers Mansion, (1834), a few hundred metres north of the gaol: & the school (1869) on the opposite side of the road from Harpers, it is distance of roughly 2 km. to the Wingecarribee River. Along the road, (The old Hume Highway, now a local road) for all of this distance there is an absence of guttering on either one side of the road or the other, reflecting the quiet rural character of the village. There is also much green open space ( including The old marketplace) along this 2 km stretch of road:on the western side there are only 8 “buildings”, almost all of them dating from the I800’s, on the eastern side 11 buildings.
The two churches in Berrima are also of heritage significance: The Holy Trinity Anglican Church (1849) was designed by Edmund Blackett; the Catholic Church (1851) by Augustus Pugin.

Although Berrima has a relatively small population it has an engaged and involved community.
The residents are proud of Berrima’s heritage and history and are especially conscious of how precarious this is in the modern world.
t is for this reason that I have given you the very brief ‘history lesson’ outline above, hopefully conveying some sense of what would be lost if BlueSox’s development is allowed to proceed.

The heritage of Berrima, indeed the village of Berrima as it is, cannot co-exist with the plan put forward by BlueSox.
The developer may well find Berrima an attractive village but the plan put forward by BlueSox will destroy the very essence which makes Berrima appealing to so many people

It is a totally inappropriate over- development of this site.
- In particular the massive imposing four walls of the Gaol must have nothing built which will detract from them
.(i.e nothing can be built external to any of the gaol’s walls: it is surely a nonsense & antithetical to good heritage management to say in effect “one [the western wall] is less visible & so it doesn’t matter too much if 49 hotel suites two or three storeys high are put there”
and not just one wall but two are seemingly of little heritage value to the developer, taking into account the large hole proposed for the eastern wall [ keeping the removed sandstone blocks numbered and “saved” somewhere in no way ameliorates the initial destruction of the wall].
I suggest you don’t save something by destroying it.

The importance of the curtilage of the Gaol also dictates nothing be built outside the walls

-an events centre/ wedding reception area open both to the stars and to midnight raises a number of issues (the NOISE from guests adversely affecting the residents; ditto TRAFFIC movements so late at night.

Other objections will address other important issues: damage to the riparian zone and the potential negative impacts on the river itself; possibility of flooding in the car park; excessive traffic and the very substantial traffic control measures which would be necessary, but would destroy the quiet, rural character of a heritage village; has adequate geological research been done as to the feasibility of the proposal

The plan proposed by BLUESOX may be perfectly suited to somewhere
but
Berrima as a heritage village cannot survive if Bluesox’s development application is allowed.

Firstly, I support the renovation and reuse of the Berrima jail to become a boutique hotel. However, I do not support the proposal as it has been presented.
My issues for objecting are as follows:
1. I do not agree with a door being cut into the heritage listed walls at the front of the jail to facilitate service at a cafe.
2. The bulk and scale of the accommodation at the Western end outside the walls and facing the river, is too dense and too high. The Berrima DCP states two stories maximum which everyone has adhered to over the course of time. I would like to see the number of rooms proposed decreased as I am concerned about the visual impact, Environmental impact, as well as the noise.
3. As per the above point, I’m concerned about the disruption for local residents from the function centres and hope that there are some parameters put around operating hours and amplified noise to deal with this. Plus traffic flow and parking modifications to avoid Wiltshire Street being blocked and Impossible for emergency vehicles to access.
Thank you for your time and consideration.

See my attached submission

Objections to Berrima Gaol proposal
The village of Berrima is one of the few remaining Georgian villages in Australia, built of local sandstone.
The State Government had no right to put this example of early C19 heritage up for sale without extensive community consultation, which did not happen. There were potential community uses for the old Berrima Gaol which were being developed and discussed but the State Government acted with unnecessary haste in selling the buildings and site to a developer who appears to be only paying lip-service to conservation issues, given the intrusive and excessive size of the structures planned, the breaching of the old stone walls and the impact on the riparian zone along the river.
The proposed development by the Blu Sox Group is not at all in keeping with Wingecarribee Shire Council’s own Berrima Development Control Plan, which outlines 6 major objectives:
A2.2 Objectives of this Plan
This section lists those objectives which guide the Plan as a whole. They should be read in conjunction with the specific objectives which apply to individual types of development and precincts. The general objectives of the plan are as follows:
a) Preserve the character of Berrima Village as being a largely intact nineteenth century village, predominantly Georgian in character, with modest scaled buildings set in a mature landscape setting.
b) To provide specific controls for all forms of development on both public and private land within the Berrima Village.
c) Maintain and enhance the existing visual, built and landscape character of Berrima Village.
d) Ensure that new or infill development is sympathetic to the existing built forms and landscape.
e) Protect and conserve buildings, structures or places of environmental heritage and/ or visual importance.
f) Provide Council’s requirements in the form of performance criteria in order to achieve the above objectives.”

It is quite clear from the drawings and plans put forward by the developer that Objectives a), c) and e) will not be met. The proposed redevelopment of the Gaol as a luxury hotel complex is totally out of character with the character of the village because of its excessive scale and will detract from the existing visual, built and landscape character of the village. While the plan will claim to be an adaptive use of the old goal, it is not at all in character with the village as it now is, where additional buildings over several decades have been required to fit in with the existing character of the village. This has meant that Berrima has remained a pleasant village for both locals and tourists to visit.

The main street and surrounding streets of Berrima are often very busy on weekends and this development is likely to greatly increase the traffic into and out of the village to the detriment of local residents and visitors who enjoy the village‘s heritage character.

To conclude, this plan for the old Berrima Gaol and surrounding area along the riverbank has no merit and no motive except profit for the developer. The Southern Highlands is a popular visitor destination for people from Sydney and other areas, most of whom come as day visitors or for short stays. There is really little or no demand for the kind of high-end hotel accommodation being proposed, which can be satisfied elsewhere in the Highlands. The gap in the holiday accommodation sector has always been for good medium priced accommodation for families and younger people and the old Berrima Gaol could be adapted satisfy this need as well as provide community facilities for concerts and similar, which would be used by the local community and visitors. Hence this proposal has no merit whatsoever and should be rejected.

This objection is on behalf of the Southern Highlands Landcare Network which has 23 members and 98 associate from across the Wingecarribee Shire.

I have grown up in Berrima and currently living in the home I grew up in we have a clear view of the riverside of the Gaol where the proposed accommodations are to be built. From the plans that have been submitted it is really quite obvious that the proposed redevelopment is not the right use of this historic site and it will really impact the village as a whole. Berrima is a popular tourist attraction that draws people for the historical experience if a redevelopment for accomodation purposes the owners would be better off containing the accommodation within original walls give guest the experience of staying in a cell. By cutting a huge hole is the wall and adding on modern buildings that are multi story that is destroying the very thing that people are drawn to the village for our history. There are other factors that also need to be considered any building on the river bank will change the river potentially leading to flooding of existing housing along the river. We also have a diverse range of wildlife that reside along the river that they call home any buildings that go there will affect them. Berrima also does not have the infrastructure that will cope with the proposed plans.
Consideration should also go to the residents that will have an altered view or will loose their sense of privacy and peace. I do understand that there is a vision that the developers have but it really comes across that they do not know or appreciate the area, the appeal of the village and why for current residents and visitors. My objections are not only my own but others share my concern for this project as is it is not what it should be and should it go ahead as proposed Berrima will loose it's identity and there will be nothing here left for the guests to visit. The developers can rethink their plans and listen to the community before it's too late