Calls from Alpine and North East residents to add cafe facilities to restoration plans for the Mount Buffalo Chalet will be suggested to Parks Victoria.
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When the Victorian government announced $4.1 million for preservation works in March, re-opening the historic chalet for visitors was not on the cards.
Alpine Council mayor Ron Janas said the aim of a Tuesday meeting in Melbourne wasn’t to request more funding, but make suggestions within the budget and float potential commercial partnerships.
“We believe by putting case studies forward and working with other agencies and private industry there’s possibility,” he said.
“They’re working within the budget they’ve been set and the community believes there is room for expansion in a measured way.”
Cr Janas said when the Mount Buffalo Destination Advisory Group began, the government wouldn’t commit to cafe proposals.
“They certainly committed funds to do certain things – stabilising the building and doing some works in the car park and surrounds,” he said.
“We would like to leverage some money from those funds to consider doing some more staged works.”
Cr Janas will also request Parks Victoria provide a community update on completed works since March, which include removal of windows for restoration.
Sean Hallam, a former member of the community action for the chalet group, said the building was quickly falling into disrepair.
“I was in the chalet recently and the carpet was drenched – there’s water leaking through various places and it’s not being secured or protected,” he said.
Mr Hallam said the winter threw up a challenge for restoration and time would tell in warmer months what progress would be made.
“I toured the chalet two weeks ago and there's maybe eight windows that have been removed,” he said.
“You would expect a lot more work to have occurred.
“There’s nothing like this in Australia and I can’t believe how it’s been let go.”
Mr Hallam asked whether Alpine Council would put money towards the chalet at its meeting on Tuesday.
Mr Janas said it would be “remiss of council” to do so, as it wasn’t their asset.
“I don’t think being adversarial and stating to the government we’re going to put up some sort of a fighting fund would be advantageous to anyone,” he said.
“We have a bilateral approach.”
