By Jenel Hunt
As part of a redevelopment plan for the Girraween National Park visitor area, the State Government has offered to gift Gunn’s Cottage rather than demolish it, and the Southern Downs Regional Council has decided to submit a formal expression of interest to have the building moved to the Stanthorpe Showgrounds.
The cottage could end up housing the She Hive group, also known as the Granite Belt Ladies Shed, and the council heard that members of She Hive were keen to move to a permanent home in town. The group’s current headquarters is at the Fred Rogers Camp at Storm King Dam.
Some questions about who would pay for the removal and subsequent relocation costs were raised at the Southern Downs Regional Council meeting on 19 June and although the queries couldn’t be answered at the time, councillors decided to take a leap of faith to allow council officers to negotiate with the State Government on the removal of the cottage.
Two councillors, Ross Bartley and Russell Wantling, were against the proposal.
Council’s community services manager Michael Bell said it might be possible that the State Government would reallocate costs that would otherwise go towards demolition, to moving the building.
“We’re not looking to acquire another asset,” he assured councillors.
“This provides an opportunity for a not-for-profit to occupy a building that is maintained by someone else.”
He said while there would be an initial capital cost for the council, there would be no on-going operational expenditure.
“In the longer term, this is actually beneficial to council if we can make it work,” he said.
Once sited at the showgrounds, Gunn’s Cottage would belong to the Stanthorpe Agricultural Society.
According to a private website dedicated to Girraween National Park, rymich.com, back in the 1930s and ’40s the Gunn family lived in a house near the Pyramids, now a well known landmark of Girraween National Park. The second son in the family bought a property located further up the road and several years later Napier ‘Boy’ Gunn bought the block and relocated a house from Glen Aplin to the site where the house still stands opposite the Girraween Visitor Information Centre.
The Gunn family lived in the house until 1965 when they sold their 52.4ha property to the government and it was combined with existing national park land to become Girraween National Park.
The cottage was used for park staff quarters and more recently has housed slide shows for visitors.
