Tamworth Regional Council should preserve 'historic' Darling Street house slated for demolition, according to heritage report

Councillors will decide whether or not to preserve the dwelling, known as Crittenden cottage, at its Tuesday night meeting.

The house at 4 Darling Street most recently served as part of the Billabong Clubhouse, but was originally built in 1898 or 1890 as the caretaker's cottage for Tamworth's old courthouse, according to an independent heritage assessment.

Tamworth's Garry Strudwick bought the building from Billabong Clubhouse in February intending to demolish it to convert it into eight new dwellings.

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Mr Strudwick, a fourth generation Tamworth resident, said he hadn't known the building to have any heritage significance and had checked with council before buying it.

The day the sale settled, council contacted him for a meeting to inform him about an interim heritage order it later imposed.

He got just four days notice that the full heritage report for his house would go to a council meeting this month - a phone call at about 3.30pm on Friday - and is out of town.

"It's only a pretty ordinary old house," he said.

"We've never known any significance at all in that area. There are a lot better, more significant brick houses in East Tamworth, that's what this old house is. It just appears that they can heritage list anything they want to regardless of any significance of it."

Mr Strudwick spent $20,000 on a plan for the flats and said council had been "terribly inconsiderate".

"I've got no say in the matter."

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A spokesperson for Tamworth Regional Council said council staff had met with the owner "earlier in the year" to inform him of the interim order and a subsequent independent heritage assessment of the site.

"He was given options to either speak to councillors or write to them before the meeting. He was also later offered the option of addressing the meeting via Zoom," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said if the property becomes registered as a local heritage-listed item, any future proposed development of the site will be "assessed against the relevant state and local heritage-related planning controls".

"The aim is to ultimately take the steps to ensure the protection of the property which is 124 years old and has considerable historical and social significance within the city of Tamworth," he said.

The report, which was conducted by independent heritage consultant Ray Christison recommends protecting the dwelling.

His report rules that 4 Darling Street has "local historical, historical association and social significance, and representativeness".

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Aside from its origins as part of a "justice precinct", built near the old courthouse, the cottage was converted in 1939 into the residence of the Police Boys Club supervisor.

"It should be noted that the Tamworth Police Boys Club is considered to be the first such club to be established in NSW," the report reads.

From August 1980 for 12 years, it was used as a base for the Tamworth Women and Children's Refuge, the first organisation of its kind established in the New England.

In 2002, it was refurbished by volunteers after being purchased by mental health charity Billabong House with the proceeds of a $100,000 bequest by Moree contract wool shearer Brian Crittenden. It was used as cheap accommodation for out-of-town families and carers of patients at the city's mental health services for two decades.

The issue of protecting the property was initially raised with council by concerned members of the community.

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