Catholic Parish of Ivanhoe denies plans to rezone and sell off modernist church amid calls for it to be protected

But Father Bill Edebohls from the Catholic Parish of Ivanhoe said there were no plans to rezone the land or sell any of it off, and a final decision on whether the church would need to be demolished had not yet been made.

The Catholic Parish of Ivanhoe denies they are planning to sell off land but is considering demolition. Photo: Paul Atkinson

Fr Edebohls said it was decided in recent years that the Mary Immaculate site on the corner of Upper Heidelberg Road and Waverley Avenue in Ivanhoe would serve as the centre for three parishes in the area that were recently merged.

“To achieve that it simply needs to be upgraded or redeveloped to make it more user-friendly and manageable, with decent facilities,” Fr Edebohls said. “A lot of the advice we were getting from architects and engineers is that the church is irredeemable and it would be more cost-effective to replace it. That’s one of the options but we still haven’t decided which option to take.”

Fr Edebohls said something needed to be done about the church, which was no longer “fit for purpose”.

“You’re freezing to death in winter and boiling in summer, with no toilet facilities and it’s difficult for people with a disability – the vast majority of those using the building just want something done,” Fr Edebohls said. “It comes down to the reality of people saying what the church needs for the future, what it’s like for them to live in the building and for those using it day by day for their own comfort.”

He said the parish was currently considering three options, one involving a major refitting of the existing church, and two involving the demolition of the building.

Backlash to preserve church

The Mary Immaculate Church was built in 1961. Photo: Wolfgang Sievers

The National Trust this month called on the local council to apply to the state minister for planning for an interim heritage overlay to protect the Mary Immaculate Church from potential demolition.

“We think this is a really significant church to the local area,” National Trust advocacy manager Felicity Watson said. “This is a really significant modernist church by a prominent architecture firm.”

Banyule City Council mayor Mark Di Pasquale confirmed the council would be meeting with the National Trust later in the week to discuss the issue.

“Council is meeting with the National Trust to further discuss the matter, however at this stage no decision has been made in relation to seeking interim heritage controls,” Mr Di Pasquale said.

The Victorian Heritage Council does not think the site should be state heritage-listed. Photo: Paul Atkinson

The church was designed by Mockridge Stahle and Mitchell in the 1960s and is a prominent example of a modernist church in Victoria. Despite there being an estimated 400 large modernist churches in the Melbourne metropolitan area, Ms Watson said these buildings were “underrepresented” on heritage lists.

“They are a significant part of our cultural and architectural history but are underrepresented when it comes to heritage listings,” she said. “We believe that the church is a really exceptional example of post-war ecclesiastical architecture. It’s a wonderful example of a modernist church.”

“We want to advocate for these really historically and architecturally significant churches to be protected as part of future plans.”

Late last year the Victorian Heritage Council decided not to include the church on the Victorian Heritage Register because it did not have the necessary links to historical events during the post-war period to “elevate it above the many other places of worship built in this period”.

The decision was reviewed last month, with the review committee agreeing with the original decision but saying that the Heritage Council may wish to consider its powers to refer the recommendation to the City of Banyule for inclusion in the local heritage overlay as it was more significant at a local level rather than the state level.

“Valuable” site

The church occupies a 3000-square-metre corner site. Photo: Supplied

Despite reports the church area had been approved for rezoning into a business site, Fr Edebohls said the land would be remaining in control of the parish, and no new building permits had been granted.

The council confirmed the area had not been rezoned in recent years. The land is zoned as commercial in the front area and general residential in the back, with the front area rezoned in 2015 as part of the Ivanhoe Structure Plan, the council said.

If the interim heritage overlay is granted, the parish would be unable to demolish the building, but Fr Edebohls said this may be the eventual decision anyway.

“I’m still open to the option of refitting and rebuilding the parish centre around the existing church,” he said. “Whatever the outcome is, I’m still not opposed to that option, depending on the advice of what’s possible and what’s not.”

“We are nowhere near deciding which way we’re going to go. Even if the heritage thing hadn’t happened we’d still be looking at the very same options.”

A report commissioned by the parish by FPPV Architecture a decade ago found that the building was “hard and sombre” and “unwelcoming”.