The Hills Shire Council engaged NOHC to prepare a Conservation Management Plan for Balcombe Heights Reserve, Baulkham Hills.
Client
Location
Services provided
- Preparing conservation management plan
- Identification of management priorities
- Historical and Archival research
Balcombe Heights Reserve is in Baulkham Hills in northwest Sydney, and is comprised of former Masonic School buildings, avenues, memorials, gardens and sporting fields and other community and sporting facilities.
The Reserve has exceptional local significance which demonstrates overlays of a continuing pattern of human use and occupation during the 20th Century to present day combined with the rare potential to document past human cultures before and after European settlement of the area. The Masonic School was established in the 1920s, engendered a sense of community and attachment that continues in its former students and their families as well as providing venues for community interest and service groups, some since the 1970s.
The site is also significant for its role in remembering those who lost their lives in war. The Conservation Management Plan (CMP) prepared by NOHC built of past research on the history and development of the Estate, updated the site's statement of significance, and recommended specific conservation policies to manage the place's significance, elements, fabric and curtilage.