Like to live in the oldest house in Willy?

Our oldest house? Demolisher's delight

• Goya Bennett and Geoff Strong
• April 23, 2009

Going, going gone? The 150-year-old Williamstown dwelling. Photo: Wayne Taylor

A RAMSHACKLE mess in Williamstown is the centre of a bitter conservation row because it is thought to date from 1842, making it possibly Melbourne's oldest house. It is also on a prime development site and has an owner who needs to sell to prop up his dwindling superannuation.

The weatherboard house, which has been unoccupied since at least the early 1960s, was listed in 2007 by Heritage Victoria on its heritage register after considerable debate.

This makes it technically one of the state's most significant buildings. But the owner, Hoppers Crossing man Gary Page, said he had been told as little as $10,000 would be available as a grant from the State Government to restore it, despite an estimate that proper repairs would cost $200,000.

The 839-square-metre block has been estimated by the real estate agents who want to sell it to be worth about $1 million.

The property has been in the Page family since 1964, when Mr Page's father bought it as a storage site for his oil drum recycling business. Mr Page, who has owned it since 1981, has applied to Heritage Victoria to demolish the structure before the land is sold at auction, but he said yesterday he was happy to donate the house to anyone who wanted to take it away for restoration.

There have also been suggestions the house could be moved to parkland and restored as a museum, but there has been little enthusiasm from Hobsons Bay Council and no offer of money.

Patsy Toop, president of the community group Preserve Old Williamstown, says the house should be preserved on its current site as a national monument. "This cottage represents the first settlement in Melbourne. Before it was built, more than likely there would have been tents. In America, Europe or England, remnants of first settlement are made national monuments."

But while Victoria's National Trust believes owners of such buildings should be given much more financial assistance to preserve them, its senior historian, Celestina Sagazio, said there was not enough evidence that this was Melbourne's oldest house. She said there had been considerable debate in Heritage Victoria before the building was finally listed on its register. "What we do know is that the block was first gazetted in 1837. Its first owner was a James Cain who bought it in 1841 and then sold it to William Pope in 1842," she said.

"The first reference to a house on the site was the first local council rate book of 1856, which said there was a four-room timber dwelling occupied by Clara Pope, the widow of William Pope."

Mr Page said he did not want to see history destroyed. "Someone suggested it should just catch fire, but I don't want that to happen. I have been approached by someone who wants to restore the building, and if I get a demolition permit I will let him take it."

He said he was retired and living on superannuation. The imperative to sell had resulted from the decline in his super due to the economic downturn.

"I offered it to the council to rent it as parkland, but they rejected the idea, so here I am getting no rent and having to pay big rates on it each year."