The birthplace of the former prime minister Gough Whitlam could be demolished after an application for heritage status was rejected.
The Heritage Council of Victoria has deemed that the 100-year-old house, on Rowland Street in the Melbourne suburb of Kew, is not worthy of protection.
The council ruled the house was not culturally significant to Victoria because “the association between the birth and approximately the first 18 months of Gough Whitlam’s life does not constitute evidence of a special association between Whitlam and the place”.
The house was due to be demolished on the day in October 2014 when Whitlam died aged 98.
It was temporarily saved following an intervention by Victoria’s then planning minister Matthew Guy, who wrote to the heritage council requesting that an interim protection order be placed on the property.
However, with the rejection of the heritage status application, the house may be demolished, barring an intervention by Boroondara council.
The house, named Ngara, is fenced off. It was built in 1915 by Whitlam’s grandfather. Whitlam was born at the property the following year.
In 2013, the house was purchased for $3.3m by Youquing Liang, who plans to demolish and rebuild the property.
The house is one of the few enduring links between Whitlam and Victoria. He left the state aged two.
Barry Jones, a friend of Whitlam’s, told the Progress Leader it would be a “tragic shame” if the house was knocked down.
Supporters of a heritage listing now plan to write to the Boroondara council mayor, Coral Ross, in a bid to save the property.
