A piece of New York by the harbour has heritage society worried

New York University has been in discussions with the state government over using the heritage-listed harbourfront site of Strickland House for its planned Sydney campus, including converting existing buildings into student accommodation.

A question mark has hovered over the future of the 4.9-hectare park and its six heritage buildings for two decades, as a range of commercial uses have been proposed to pay for its upkeep.

June Poland, of the Woollahra History and Heritage Society, said any use must permit maximum public access as well as conserve its heritage and open space.

Mrs Poland, who has been lobbying to keep Strickland House in public hands for 25 years, was contacted by a representative of NYU in August to discuss suitable uses for the site.

But since then the society has become concerned that the university’s intentions are now ”bigger than Ben-Hur” and might involve a 99-year lease that it could sell, Mrs Poland said.

”An overuse of the public parkland and the historic house … would not be complementary to the public’s use and enjoyment of the [Vaucluse] property,” Mrs Poland said.

The president of NYU, John Sexton, told students in October that the university was in negotiations with the government over a large property with water views that would be a ”gift” to the university on condition it was renovated, the university’s student newspaper NYU Local said.

The site, which was used as a hospital for 75 years until it was closed in 1989, has six buildings, including two former dormitories for nurses, and the famous Carrara homestead, built in the 1850s for Sydney’s first lord mayor, John Hosking. The state government bought the site in 1914 to add it to neighbouring Nielsen Park, but the First World War intervened and the formal transfer never happened.

Strickland House generates revenue as a function venue and film set (standing in for Darwin’s Parliament House in Baz Luhrmann’s Australia in 2007), but the cost of maintenance – reportedly $380,000 a year – far outpaces the income. The gardens are open to the public year-round but the house is open only one day a year.

A spokesman for the Department of Finance and Services, which now owns the site, confirmed that NYU had contacted the government with a proposal for Strickland House this year.

He would not comment on the status or details of NYU’s proposal but said ”there are no plans to change the current arrangements at Strickland House, i.e. ongoing maintenance and public access to the grounds seven days a week”.

NYU could not be contacted last night, but the university has said the opening of its planned Sydney site would be delayed until at least the second half of 2012.