The Artefact of Point Nepean

The National Heritage Listing of Point Nepean Defense and Quarantine Precinct requires ‘[the] owner not allow [the] registered place or object fall into disrepair or fail to maintain it to the extent that its conservation is threatened’. With this as a condition, the site was transferred from the Commonwealth to the State in 2009 and since then there has been a stream of proposals to find a commercial use. The need for the site to ‘pay its way’ tethers success and value in a way that justifies neglect, which raises issues as to the concept of National Significance and the notion of duty and obligation.

At any moment the two compulsions - obligation to maintain the fabric and the requirement for ‘economic sustainability’ - constitute the project, however the site is in a state of continual change, and ultimately the project is seen not individually but as a drama. A baroque tragedy, where events or moments are the precondition and possibility for the future. The act of preservation and addressing climate change becomes the instrument by which we acknowledge the cost of neglecting the environment as well as offering the chance to recognise and conceptualize our time in time.