The government has walked back plans to sell the historic barracks, prompting questions about its future and upkeep
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Before February, when the defence department announced its intention to sell Australia’s oldest active military site, only a handful of people would show up for its weekly public tours.
Now more than 100 queue outside the sandstone-ensconced doors of Sydney’s Victoria Barracks every Thursday, with crowds hoping to see the city’s premier military installation before things change for the first time since 1848.
The military is largely vacating Victoria Barracks after the federal government said most of its staff would be transferred to a more secure facility in the CBD. Officials had planned to sell the site – a crown jewel in its trove of assets – as it sought to clear more than $3bn in real estate from the books.
But the prime minister walked back those plans on Sunday amid widespread outcry, saying it would remain in public hands.
All eyes have returned to the barracks, with questions about its future, its upkeep and whether its soldiers shouldn’t be moved at all.
“We thought it was a victory for common sense,” says Vince Williams, the president of RSL NSW, of the government’s reversal.
