The Guardian visited Berrima and has written about the Battle for Berrima Gaol. Click on this link to read the article
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The gaol’s property developer, Blue Sox Developments, has written a Conservation Management Plan. They decided to make this 340p PDF as user-unfriendly as possible by placing security limitations on it, ie can’t be downloaded, printed, copied/pasted, emailed.
We found this user-unfriendly format very difficult to navigate so have laboriously screen-shotted the pages from the project website so that we have a document that we can print. Click here to go to our download page
We decided it would also be useful to have, as a comparison document, the CMP commissioned by the NSW government in 2021 prior to the sale of the gaol. This is also available on our download page.
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Berrima Gaol is the largest and most important building in the historic village of Berrima. It was completed in 1839 and has faced a number of changes and challenges over the years including fire, closure, re-opening and delapidation. Its current challenge may be its greatest — the Battle for Berrima Gaol — to save the gaol from a profit-based inappropriate re-development which is not fit for purpose.
In 2022, the gaol was sold to a property developer to be adaptively re-used as an exclusive hotel precinct containing a function centre, a signature restaurant, high-end bars, a wellness centre, a cafe, and retail spaces. The plans include 60 hotel units in 2-3 storey blocks on the riverbank and a multi-storey car park — both outside the gaol walls. The developer has said the construction outside the gaol walls is non-negotiable and their plans to cut holes in gaol walls along Argyle St is appropriate adaptive re-use.
On 21 February 2025, we opened a pop-up information centre at 1/15 Old Hume Highway, Berrima. We're there most days from 10am-2pm. Since we opened our visitors have consistently told us they come to Berrima for its history, heritage and quaint village atmostphere. They also consistently say that if the gaol is changed, the village's appeal will change.
Berrima, in the NSW Southern Highlands, is unique. Various circumstances over the centuries has resulted in the village having a collection of preserved colonial Georgian buildings including the gaol, court house, many inns, and churches. The preserved buildings are complemented by an environment of vistas and views. We believe the exceptional nature of Berrima is at stake and we urge readers to research, question, envisage what it means to the village if the gaol is re-developed as an exclusive entertainment precinct.
This photo (above) was taken during World War One when Berrima Gaol was an internment camp for German nationals. The property developer who owns the gaol plans to build 60 hotel units in 2-3 storey blocks above the Wingecarribee River (outside the gaol and obscuring the heritage walls). Also in its plans for the gaol is a multi-storey carpark for 160 cars (again outside the gaol walls obscuring the vista of the walls). An important aspect of Berrima's heritage, history and its beauty, are the village views and rural vistas. A development of the scale planned by the Blue Sox Group will change the look of the exterior of the gaol, and the look and feel of the village. [photo from Australian War Memorial collection]
This cell block was part of the original 1839 structure. During the early decades of its colonial life, the gaol managed prisoners under a cruel regime known as Separate System which kept prisoners isolated with little human contact and regular time in the basement solitary confinement cells. The early gaol configuration was demolished in 1945 and replaced with the cell blocks we see today using the sandstone blocks from the 1839 gaol.
Jellore Street had a number of inns in the 1800s including Berrima Inn (aka McMahons Inn), Victoria Inn, and Coach and Horses Inn. These inns still exist but are now privately owned houses and can be seen in this photo (circa 1916).
Berrima Heritage Matters is a group of people who believe the repercussions of the private re-development of the gaol into an exclusive entertainment precinct will change Berrima for residents and visitors by jeopardising the heritage and history of gaol and the village.
We were members of the community group, Berrima Gaol Community Group, which was formed as a result of two community meetings in Berrima in early 2024. Unfortunately that group lost its way and is now defunct, however its purpose stands — to inform the Berrima community and beyond about the gaol re-development, to understand about the heritage and history of the Berrima Gaol and the impact the current proposal will have on it and the village.
If you want to join us in the Battle for Berrima Gaol, send us an email and we'll get back to you, or you can read more:
Instagram @berrima_heritage_matters
hello@berrimaheritagematters.com.au
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