By Dennis Coleman (Adelaide Arts and Heritage writer)

Cross Victoria Drive from the Torrens River embankment and enter the grounds of one of Australia’s oldest universities through a beautifully elaborate wrought-iron gate. This impressive Victorian structure bears a crest with the motto of the University of Adelaide: ‘Sub Cruce Lumen’ – The Light (of learning) under the (Southern) Cross. At once, visitors would recognise this as a university precinct–a place of higher learning.

The buildings which flank the park-like setting are the trademarks of a well-respected university of international stature. The gabled Barr Smith Library, with its ornate red brick and stone dressings, freestone portico and classical columns, has been thoughtfully extended in various decades. It is complemented to the north-east by the Mawson and Benham Laboratories (built in a similar period) while the arches and pillars of the Cloisters to the north-west sit comfortably with more red brick and paned glass understoreys. Together with1970s red-brick extensions and concrete awnings and balcony railings on the upper levels, all this provides candy for a roving eye seeking visual stimulus.

Proudly to the east stands Union Hall: the fifty-two year old building facing demolition, invoking outrage from some of Adelaide’s prominent academics, architects, visual and performing artists, and critics. Media luminaries Samela Harris, Peter Goers, and Tim Lloyd have led the public debate. The Adelaide City Council has unanimously passed a motion against the demolition. The current state government has, at best, been un-co-operative.

On a searing 40-degree day in November, a significant smattering of performing arts, heritage and political players joined the hundred-plus crowd. With Peter Goers leading proceedings, politicians from all ends of the spectrum mingled with broadcasters and playwrights as a ballet group performed for the crowd. Dr. Harry Medlin*, who gave a rousing speech at the gathering, called the decision to demolish a disgrace and “more corporate than collegiate.” He lamented a change in the ethos of the University in recent years, and he has a point.

Take a glance at a selection of paragraphs extolling the virtues of campus life on the University of Adelaide website:

The University of Adelaide’s vibrant campus life and close engagement with its community provide social, cultural and intellectual stimulation, an appreciation of diversity and an openness to enquiry that makes an impact on both students and the community as a whole‘.

And where is the nerve centre of much of this ‘vibrant campus life’ and ‘close engagement with its community’? Yes, it’s right there in this leafy-lawned area flanked by a library, bookshop, communal refectory, the Uni Bar, union offices, uni clubs and a theatre.

andy Biar, a recent Adelaide graduate and a media officer for David Winderlich, spoke at the rally and described this precinct, theatre included, as ‘the hub of university life’ and said that demolition of Union Hall would seriously disrupt the fabric of the student heartland.

There is something else to consider however, as Peter Goers discussed in relation to the proposed demolition in the Sunday Mail (Oct 11th, 2009): “Now we are to lose the grand old Union Hall to the bulldozer…there will be a crucial lack of theatres. There is already a desperate search for Fringe venues.” He relates how Festival of Arts director Paul Grabowsky fears that future festivals will be severely compromised due to the critical shortage of theatre accomodation.

In terms of architectural excellence, Union Hall, designed in 1958 by the acclaimed Laybourne-Smith, is a significant example of the ‘Functionalist’ style. Examples in Adelaide are rare. The Church of Christian Scientists building on North Terrace and Adelaide High School stand out as other excellent examples.

David Beaumont, National Trust architect, speaks of “a conversation going on between the buildings of the northern part of the University”. Union Hall is a modern reflection of the fussy grandeur of the classical-inspired Barr Smith Library. Frosted paned glass on the latter is reflected in the former with larger panes in a curved fronted, less ornate structure. Red bricks are prominent in both structures. Fluted classical columns in the Barr Smith are reflected by cubist columns in Union Hall. Ornate crests opposite are supplanted by a modern fresco reflecting classical drama in the theatre foyer. Linear elements of the concrete section of the ramp railing defer across to an almost identical structure in the lower sections of the Barr Smith building. Alone there, early one evening, while penning notes, I felt an unearthing of the dialogue between architects of different eras.

But it is not just architectural heritage that is at stake here.

Union Hall was partly funded by public subscription, corporate donations, and university funds derived from benefactors. It was a foundation venue for Adelaide’s first Festival of the Arts in 1960 and was the venue for the first 10 Adelaide film festivals and numerous festival events thereafter.

Samela Harris recalls Patrick White’s Ham Funeral being performed there vividly with the latter ‘sharing a bed with her dog’ at home. Dramatic Recital with Dame Sybil Thorndike and Sir Lewis Casson, The Caretaker by Harold Pinter and Toda-San by Hal Porter are but a few of the hundreds of international standard of performances involved at Union Hall. Samela Harris also remembers delivering a talk as 1965 editor of On Dit as well as reminiscing that ‘my greatest claim to fame there was that I wrangled dogs for Peter Goer’s production of Eureka Stockade.’

Despite claims by those involved with the proposed new Science building that the Union Theatre is totally unfit for use as a theatre and hasn’t been used as such for some time, hundreds of schools and community groups have either used it for performance or sought to use it and as recently as 2006 it was used as a Fringe Festival venue. I interviewed Eddie Perfect and the Kransky Sisters on the steps.

The State Heritage Council and Department of Environment and Heritage are currently considering two applications for Union Hall, one on architectural merit and the other in terms of performing arts heritage and usage, to be given preliminary listing on the register of the National Trust.

The internationally respected architect, Romaldo Giurgola, designer of Parliament House in Canberra, has joined the fight. “The possible elimination of Union Hall will be an act of irreparable destruction in every sense and there will never be a substitution to its value,” the 89-year-old architect says.

Whether the combined clout of thousands of dissenters can hold back the spectre of this despicable act of cultural vandalism is yet to be seen.

*Correction: Dr Harry Medlin is not a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Adelaide, as has been printed in the physical edition of On Dit. Please forgive our error.

By Lavinia Emmett-Grey

O’Week – over 4 days, an estimated 6000 students, new and old, will descend on the Barr Smith Lawns to get the last real taste of summer freedom before the academic year begins. But as you sign up for the Flash Mob Club and sidestep the puddle of milk vomit on the lawns, glance over at Union hall and reflect for a moment on the quiet rumblings of warfare over its demolition.

The University is growing at about a rate of 1000 students per year. These students have to go somewhere. And the University doesn’t have many options – it can acquire more land or it can build upwards. It knocks down a building which only seats 400 at any one time and it will see the creation of 7 stories of lecture, tutorial and research space. When Australia finally gets its shit together and becomes a republic, maybe the University can take over government house, but until then, buying more land is a far less economical option than rebuilding.

Paul Duldig, the bigwig of University’s Property Services, is under a lot of fire for the furore that has arisen. Duldig is no hero of mine, but through some bizarre accident, we’re actually on the same side in this. However, the Senior Citizens Against Change Brigade, more commonly known as the Save Union hall lobby, have successfully gained some community and media support, enough to get the University Marketing Department’s knickers in a twist.

There seem to be three main arguments against the Union Hall demolition:  it’s old, it’s one of Adelaide’s few large performance spaces, and it holds cultural significance to the University campus.

I value the 100+ year history of the Adelaide University Union. When the development was announced in September last year, I found myself in quite a moral quandary. on the one hand, I assume that 90% of the time, the University is doing the wrong thing. on the other hand, one of the most common complaints I received from students during my 2 years as AUU President was about the lack of space on campus. I was pissed off that I’d been hearing rumours about a demolition since May and there was no student consultation, but as a Law student, I have attended lectures where students had to sit on the floor or leave because there were not enough seats.

Union hall was built with money from the AUU, the University and donations in 1958 (just as a side note, when did 50 years become heritage? Does that mean my dad qualifies?). In the 1970s, the AUU decided to build extra levels on Union house and it handed over its right to Union hall to the University. In this the Save Union hall lobbyists are correct – Union hall was once a thriving theatre space.

On the 30th of october last year, when I was still President of the AUU, I received a memorable phone call from Peter Goers from the ABC and Sunday Mail. Goers proceeded to scream down the phone at me, berating me for not publicly condemning the demolition. He went on to call me a “toadie of the university”. One of his mini-rants concerned me enough to write it down. Goers referred to the “plague” of international students [Editors' note: use of the word ‘plague’ was vehemently denied by Goers] whose lack of appreciation for theatre was behind this demolition.He then continued on a tangent about how, “If I ever went to the hospital and the doctor came out and they said they were a Malaysian international student, well, I’d demand another doctor!” [Editors' note: For Goers' account of what was said, see end of article].
In Bob Lott’s open letter to the vice Chancellor about Union hall, he makes a strange statement: “In recent years as overseas student numbers increase and the ethnic mix changes there is a greater percentage of students now whose backgrounds don’t have the emphasis on what would be termed Australian/European traditional theatre performance.” To me me, there seems to be a disturbing racism underlying the arguments of two of the Save the Union Hall’s key campaigners.

Asia and India, the two key regions from where most international students in Australia come, have long and proud theatre traditions. Personally, I think that local students should bow down and thank international students whose exorbitant fees have been propping up the Australian higher education sector for around a decade, rather than draw a long bow and assign blame to them for the demolition of what is a rather ugly building.

David Winderlich, SA Legislative Councillor, has also thrown his weight behind the Save Union hall campaign. The man is looking for re-election on March 20 and since leaving the Democrats, he’s been jumping on the bandwagon of any community campaign who’ll take his calls. Fact is, the Save Union hall lobby might pack a bigger punch than the Australian Democrats put together, but that’s not saying much at all.

On January 18, the Adelaide City Council’s Development and Assessment Panel voted unanimously rejected a report recommending the hall’s demolition. This doesn’t actually mean anything, as the development doesn’t need local government consent. If Adelaide City Council has such an obsession with performance spaces, then why doesn’t it build its own?
On November 7, in his regular column in the Sunday Mail, Peter goers wrote this about me: “recently, a prominent student unionist at Adelaide University pledged to do nothing to help save Union hall from the bulldozer. This great advocate of progress described me as “having a bourgeois preoccupation with heritage”.” I stand by that statement. Because, in all of this petty drama, there is a distinct absence of what is in the best interest of students. While some get caught up in the debate of how old is old enough that you can’t fart near a building, I care far more about the fact that Little Theatre’s lighting rig is not OH&S compliant. After 18 months of asking the University when they were going to fix it, in December of last year I was told they were getting a quote. Every student performance I have ever seen has been in that space. More than that, while I respect that Scott theatre needs to be used as an interim lecture theatre during the Union hall demolition, I would call on the vice Chancellor to make a commitment to the University community that Scott will be returned as a performance space once the development is complete. the University have been deliberately vague on this issue, because while they say that it will be used for performances, they seem to be referring to evening performances. For any theatre groups and particularly music students, the real issue is being able to use it for daytime rehearsals. there seems to be a distinct lack of student focus in the Save Union hall’s campaign.

My big question for all of the Save the Union hall folk is, if you’re so pro-campus culture, where were you when voluntary student unionism saw the Adelaide University Union’s income go from about 4.5 million to $500,000 overnight? this had a far more devastating impact on the support, financial and otherwise, that went to a variety of student groups. And where have you been for the past 12 years while student income support has got progressively worse, which means that 80% of students are working part time or more? If you truly want a vibrant university theatre culture, then students need the time to get involved in either attending or performing, but with many struggling on income far below the henderson Poverty Line, this is almost impossible.

The heart and soul of any university is its students – any changes to the campus should have that at their core. This development will see more space for the students of the University of Adelaide and that is an outcome which has my support.

Editors’ Note

Peter goers has said to On Dit that Lavinia mis- understood him. he has nothing against Malaysians, but rather, “[has] concerns about foreign students. not if but when I have a quadruple by- pass, the first question I would ask of the foreign doctor is, ‘Did you pay to go to the University of Adelaide?’ The fact is, most foreign students who are paying for an education in SA, they may not be good enough to get into their own universities.”
Peter goers considered the conversation he had with Lavinia to be private, and did not name Lavinia when he recounted a part of it in his Sunday Mail column.