Building Maintenance and Refurbishment of HM Prison Pentridge

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BUILDING MAINTENANCE AND REFURBISHMENT
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Abstract
The main purpose of this report is to investigate HM Prison Pentridge, a heritage building in
Melbourne, Victoria in Australia. This building is in the Victorian Heritage Database and is of
great historical significance to the Victorian residents and Australians as a whole. The building,
which was the main remand and prison in Melbourne, was opened in 1851 and closed in 1977.
The heritage building has numerous defects, both structural and non-structural defects. This
report has proposed appropriate remedial actions for each of the 22 defects that have been
identified. Several challenges that the contractor is likely to face when restoring the heritage
building to its original condition have also been identified. Therefore the restoration project can
be implemented more successfully by finding strategies of solving these challenges.

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Table of Contents
Abstract......................................................................................................................................................2
1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................5
2. Authorizing body...............................................................................................................................5
3. Importance of Heritage Buildings....................................................................................................7
3.1. Conservation and protection........................................................................................................7
3.2. Tourism........................................................................................................................................7
3.3. Heritage research........................................................................................................................8
3.4. Community pride.........................................................................................................................8
4. Requirements or Criteria for Listing Heritage Buildings in Victoria............................................9
5. Registration process........................................................................................................................10
5.1. Nomination................................................................................................................................10
5.2. Assessment.................................................................................................................................10
5.3. Recommendation........................................................................................................................11
5.4. Publicity and Submissions.........................................................................................................11
5.5. Consideration............................................................................................................................11
5.6. Determination............................................................................................................................11
6. HM Prison Pentridge........................................................................................................................12
6.1. Original Use..............................................................................................................................12
6.2. Current and Future Use.............................................................................................................13
7. Defects..............................................................................................................................................14
8. Remedial plan..................................................................................................................................16
9. New restaurant.................................................................................................................................19
10. Potential Problems during Refurbishing...................................................................................20
10.1. Opposition from the local community....................................................................................20
10.2. Doing irreversible damage....................................................................................................20
10.3. Time-consuming approval processes.....................................................................................20
10.4. Unavailability of materials....................................................................................................21
10.5. Local building codes..............................................................................................................21
10.6. Patching up instead of replacing...........................................................................................21
10.7. Making inappropriate additions............................................................................................21
10.8. Safety risks.............................................................................................................................22
10.9. Finding a competent team......................................................................................................22

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11. Conclusion and Recommendations.............................................................................................22
12. Reflective Log...............................................................................................................................23
References................................................................................................................................................25
Appendices...............................................................................................................................................27

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1. Introduction
Heritage is a very crucial part of Australian identity. Most Australians value heritage and
uses various heritage resources as part of their identity. Communities in different parts of
Australia share the responsibility of identifying and protecting heritage resources, and passing
them to future generations as a way of telling the past story of different parts of the country.
Through these heritage resources, generations are able to learn, understand and appreciate the
things that happened before them. Australia also has an integrated systems of managing heritage
resources (Armitage & Irons, 2013).
This report presents a survey of a heritage building in Australia. The report entails
identifying a heritage building in Melbourne, Victoria; identifying defects in the building;
developing a remedial refurbishment plan for the building; identifying potential problems that a
contractor is likely to encounter when refurbishing the building; discussing the importance of
heritage buildings; stating the requirements for a building to be included in the heritage register;
and identifying the authorizing body for listed buildings in Victoria, Australia.
The heritage building being surveyed in this report is Her Majesty’s Prison Pentridge
(HM Prison Pentridge). Information from this report will help to understand the importance of
heritage buildings in Australia, the past and current use of HM Prison Pentridge, defects of HM
Prison Pentridge, and how HM Prison Pentridge can be refurbished.
2. Authorizing body
The body that is responsible for authorizing heritage buildings in Victoria is Heritage
Council of Victoria. This is the body that determines the objects (shipwrecks, transport vehicles,
furniture, equipment, archeological artefacts and relics) and places (buildings, precincts,

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streetscapes, parks, gardens, trees, cemeteries and archeological sites) to be included in the
Victorian Heritage Database, and also manages the database. The main mandate of Heritage
Council of Victoria is to identify or evaluate proposals of objects and places to be included in the
Victorian Heritage Database, use the specified criteria to identify the places and objects that
qualify to be included in the database, advice the government and other relevant stakeholders on
the best approaches of protecting, conserving historically important places and objects in
Victoria for the benefits of the current and future generations; and enhance celebration of the
cultural heritage of Victoria.
The Victorian Heritage Database is a catalogue containing the most significant heritage
objects, places and historic shipwrecks of Victoria, which are conserved under the Heritage Act
2017 (Heritage Council of Victoria, (n.d.)). The Heritage Act 2017 came into effect on
November 1, 2017 and its main goal is to ensure that significant heritage objects and laces of
Victoria are protected properly into the future (Victoria State Government, 2017).
Heritage Council of Victoria is an independent statutory body comprising of councils and
committees. The committees of the Council include: registration and reviews committee,
protocols committee, finance and risk management committee, communications committee,
heritage policy & practice committee, joint working group committee, and special committees
(local government committee, heritage fabric committee, and archeology and underwater cultural
heritage committee). The body is appointed by the Governor-in-Council and has a four-member
secretariat (Heritage Council of Victoria, 2019). Heritage Council of Victoria is supported by
Heritage Victoria – a Victorian state government agency whose responsibility is to administer
the Heritage Act 1995 (State Government of Victoria, 2019).

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3. Importance of Heritage Buildings
Heritage buildings in Victoria provides vital information about the past story of Victoria
State and Australia as a whole, and also enriches and safeguards the state’s present and future.
Conserving heritage buildings is also an investment and plays a key role in bringing the
community together. Below are four main benefits of heritage buildings.
3.1. Conservation and protection
The main reason why buildings are listed in Victorian Heritage Database is to protect and
conserve them. These buildings played a very important role in the past within that particular
region hence protecting and conserving them in one way of appreciating the role they played and
protecting the identity of where they are located. Governments usually develop comprehensive
conservation and protection management systems for the heritage buildings as a way of
safeguarding their historical value.
3.2. Tourism
Most heritage buildings in Victoria attract hundreds of thousands or even millions of tourists
every year. These tourisms come from within Australia and other parts of the world to see,
experience and learn about the heritage buildings. They also visit these buildings for recreational
purposes. The Government of Victoria, in collaboration with the national government, has
developed necessary facilities such as transport infrastructure (roads, airports, railways and
transit systems), hotels, restaurants and public parks, to facilitate movement of tourists to, around
and from the heritage buildings, and also make their experience memorable. The tourism
generates significant revenue for the state and local government and creates employment
opportunities for local residents, which spur economic growth within the region. The tourism
also helps the state to showcase their innovations and other economic and social capabilities. The

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economic potential of heritage buildings has made many state governments to refurbish and
conserve most of the heritage buildings that were previously desolated.
3.3. Heritage research
Every heritage building is a very rich source of history of the place they are located. These
buildings tell a story about a place and provide other details such as architectural styles and
building materials used in their construction. They are in a wide range of research activities like
architectural valuation, assessing historical significance, and identifying the impacts of building
projects, among others. For instance, HM Prison Pentridge helps to learn about the life of
prisoners during those days, how they were executed by hanging, some of the notable prisoners
in the building, prisoners who escaped from the prison, and the various architectural and design
features of the building. From the time HM Prison Pentridge was closed in 1997, there are many
bodies that have been exhumed from the grave sites for research purposes and other reasons.
Therefore there is a lot to study and learn from heritage buildings and many researchers use them
as sources of information for their research activities about the heritage of that particular place.
3.4. Community pride
Most of the Australian communities have heritage buildings they are proud of. These
buildings are used to acknowledge their historical value to the neighboring communities and
residents where they are located. Most of the heritage buildings are used as focal points where
local communities and visitors gather for various reasons. Whenever people visit these buildings,
local residents use this opportunity to talk about their community and the historical value of the
buildings. This increases the residents’ pride in their communities and also facilitates creation of
a sense of place (Srinivas, 2015).