Armidale Teachers’ College was gazetted to return to the NSW Department of Education on Friday, taking it away from Crown Lands Department and placing the heritage listed buildings and property into the more energetically funded department from where it operated for many years.
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“For me, looking at David Drummond, who was our local Member and laid the foundation stone here in 1929, and in the decades and decades since all the hundreds of teachers who have been taught here, for me, I think this beautiful old building is coming back home,” said Local MP Adam Marshall when making the announcement.
“That gives certainty of tenure to NECOM, but it also paves the way for a massive injection of capital to really bring this grand old Dame back to life.
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“This is a beautiful building has suffered for decades through lack of expenditure to not only maintain it, but also to reopen a lot of the spaces and rooms which have had to be condemned because of water leakage and general decay that happens in buildings of this particular vintage.”
Mr Marshall thought the the best of all outcomes was reached with the decision.
Graham Wilson is president of the Friends of the Old Teachers’ College, formed in 1997. He said the university used the building until the mid-1990s, when they decided they were going to mothball the building and move out.
“We were formed to ensure that we could get funding and in order to work with the university to overcome that decision,” Mr Wilson said.
“I worked for 11 years with the university just trying to get a lift, and it just never eventuated, but we did raise $120,000 to get one put into the building.
He thought being part of a government department was the best outcome for the buildings and grounds of one of Armidale’s most historic places.
