The Tuggeranong Homestead will remain protected by heritage rules, despite it being marked for potential development in a draft planning strategy, ACT Heritage Minister Rebecca Vassarotti says.
The draft Tuggeranong district strategy plan, published as part of the government's consultation on changes to the planning system, marks the homestead site for "possible" change, threatening to reignite an almost three-decade old battle to protect the area.
Sites marked for possible change are "where there are opportunities for change but further work and detailed planning is needed and/or underway", the government said.
Ms Vassarotti said the territory's heritage unit had this month provided feedback on the draft district strategies, including on proposals for Tuggeranong.
"This input included a request that any development at Tuggeranong Homestead be consistent with the requirements of the Tuggeranong Homestead citation in accordance with the provision of the Heritage Act 2004," Ms Vassarotti said.
The Heritage Minister said protections remained in place even while the ACT did not have a functioning heritage council.
The government has been recruiting members for an interim heritage council after the previous council was sacked following a review that found unprofessional behaviour and Ms Vassarotti lost confidence in the body.
Planning Minister Mick Gentleman this month wrote to a member of the Minders of Tuggeranong Homestead to say the established heritage and potential ecological values at the homestead did not necessarily preclude future development.
"However, they would be important matters for detailed consideration of any potential future development proposal," Mr Gentleman wrote in the letter, seen by The Canberra Times.
A spokeswoman for Mr Gentleman had previously said any proposals for development on the site would need to be considered carefully against its heritage values and other characteristics, including through detailed planning, environmental and infrastructure investigations.
"It is unlikely the government would make an application to deregister Tuggeranong Homestead [from the territory's heritage register]. As with other heritage sites the government would seek to maintain and enhance the heritage values of the site," the spokeswoman said.
In November 1994, the ACT government abandoned all plans to develop housing on part of the homestead site, bound by Ashley and Johnson Drives in Richardson. That plan had included 230 to 250 houses with the remaining land to remain as a "heritage farm".
The Minders of Tuggeranong Homestead action group was established in 1992 to oppose earlier development plans and remains active, running working groups to assist in the maintenance of the site. The homestead now runs as an events venue.
The journalist and historian Charles Bean worked with his team between 1919 and 1925 on Australia's official history of the First World War at the homestead, where the first house was constructed in the 1830s.
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