A purpose-built mental health facility proposed for a site where hundreds of orphaned children were buried in the 1800s has been approved by Hobart councillors.
Plans for the southern mental health beds development at St John’s Park in New Town were submitted by the Department of Health earlier this year and recommended for approval by council officers.
The completed development will house over two dozen beds for new adolescent mental health services and an eating disorder clinic.
Councillors expressed feeling ‘torn’ and ‘perplexed’ over the project at Wednesday’s planning meeting, with all but two voting to approve it.
President of the Friends of the Orphan School Dianne Snowden said that while she does not oppose the development, she believes there are “alternative, less sensitive and more appropriate” locations in the park that will not disturb human remains.
“We know the names of those that are buried there, who they were, when they died and in many cases why they died,” she told the meeting.
“Many were the children of convicts, others were Aboriginal children from Flinders Island … there were also paupers, many of whom were ex-convicts from the New Town Charitable Institution.”
Snowden said the exact boundaries of the burial ground and the locations of the children’s graves are unknown, but acknowledged that people may be buried under existing buildings and a car park on the site.
“The Department of Health has been saying for some time that it is undertaking a ground penetrating radar survey to establish boundaries but this has not yet been done,” she said.
Councillors Louise Elliot, Marti Zucco, Ryan Posselt, Gemma Kitsos, Ben Lohberger, Louise Bloomfield, Bill Harvey and Zelinda Sherlock supported the development. John Kelly and Mike Dutta did not.
The site must be archaeologically examined for unmarked burials before development begins and any remains found that ‘cannot be left undisturbed in situ’ will need to be exhumed and reburied in another location.
