A senior heritage officer at Heritage NSW told a colleague last year that she had "misjudged" an assessment of an old timber building in central Newcastle which is now being demolished to make way for luxury apartments.
Documents released under freedom-of-information laws show the heritage officer sent an email to a program manager on September 5 expressing doubts about a preliminary assessment of the timber house at 74 King Street and a briefing report she had prepared for Heritage NSW executive director Sam Kidman.
The undated preliminary assessment and briefing report both recommended rejecting a temporary protection order request from the Newcastle Club, which had sought to delay demolition of the 19th century house for six months to allow for a more detailed examination of its heritage value.
"I think I've changed my mind. I've gone backwards and forwards on it, but I think there's enough of an argument here that more research could be warranted," the senior heritage officer wrote.
"Ugh! I misjudged this and caused more work for myself I think.
"It all centres on the age of the building.
" ... Here is the refusal brief I prepared and the prelim assessment. Is there time to talk this through this afternoon?"
The freedom-of-information documents show Mr Kidman received a briefing report on or after October 26.
Mr Kidman wrote to Newcastle Club chief executive Mr Baker on November 3 informing him his interim heritage order request was "not being progressed".
"A preliminary assessment of significance by Heritage NSW found that, based on the evidence provided, the building is not likely to meet the threshold for state or local listing," Mr Kidman wrote.
It is not clear from the documents what happened in the two months between the senior heritage officer expressing doubts about her preliminary assessment and the protection order being formally refused.
A Heritage NSW spokesperson said on Monday that the senior heritage officer's email was "reflective of the initial discussion of the matter between team members".
Developer Iris Capital began preparing to demolish the house and other buildings on the site of stages three and four of its EastEnd residential development on Monday.
The work started eight months after City of Newcastle fast-tracked approval of the demolition in April.
The timber building has been at the centre of a dispute between Iris and nearby landowners since the developer lodged amended plans for the final stages of the EastEnd complex in June last year.
The new development application, which is still being assessed, seeks to change elements of an approved 2017 concept plan for the EastEnd project, adding three extra floors to a new building in front of the Newcastle Club and five storeys to another apartment tower.
A consultant working for Iris prepared a heritage report for the development application which says the house at 74 King Street "dates from the pre-1930s" and was "most likely constructed in the late 19th/early 20th centuries".
The Newcastle Club, Newcastle Inner City Residents Association, Newcastle East Residents Group, the National Trust and Anglican Dean Katherine Bowyer have publicly criticised the revised development's impact on heritage buildings and view corridors to Christ Church Cathedral.
The National Trust said in July that the King Street house was most likely built in the 1860s, could be the oldest timber building in Newcastle and had links to prominent government architect Mortimer Lewis senior.
National Trust Hunter chair Mark Metrikas attacked the Iris-commissioned heritage assessment as inadequate and "professionally embarrassing".
The Newcastle Club, on behalf of the objectors, engaged a Sydney-based heritage architect, Paul Davies, to challenge the developer's heritage report.
Mr Davies found the Iris-commissioned heritage report had "failed to assess this building adequately and that the recent approval from council for demolition is flawed".
"There is no doubt that the current building is the same one built in 1861 for Mortimer Lewis Junior," Mr Davies said in a letter to Heritage Minister Penny Sharpe in August.
"This makes the building one of the oldest in the area.
"There could be little doubt that the place is of local significance and should be an LEP [council Local Environment Plan] heritage item.
"It is also likely that research and detailed site analysis will reveal that the building is connected to Mortimer Lewis senior, which must place the building at state level significance."
Mr Davies said the interim heritage process had been established for "precisely" this "type of situation".
"There would also appear to be no difficulty in relation to imminent works in placing an order on the building as there are no other consents in place for work to proceed beyond demolition," he wrote.
