In preparation for the $40 million Newcastle Art Gallery expansion, City of Newcastle has awarded a tender for remediation work on the site, which sits above the Dudley Coal Seam and Borehole Coal Seam.
Newcastle Lord Mayor, Nuatali Nelmes, said the mine remediation was a crucial part of early work to prepare the site ahead of the main construction commencing.
“An interesting and little-known fact about Newcastle Art Gallery is that it sits atop abandoned mine workings, so it’s important that we ensure the site is safe for construction of the expanded gallery to commence later this year,” Cr Nelmes said.
“The mine remediation is a significant step forward to prepare the site, while work continues inside the gallery to decant and prepare the extensive collection for offsite storage.”
The work will target the Borehole Coal Seam, which sits around 75 metres below ground level and Dudley Coal Seam around 27 metres below ground.
The remediation is scheduled to commence in June and will require approximately 15,000 cubic metres of grout deployed into the seams of over 100 individual bores drilled throughout the site.
The mine remediation work has been designed as part of the project’s Grouting and Verification Plan, which has received approval from Subsidence Advisory New South Wales.
An application, which is currently under assessment, has been made to the Hunter Central Coast Development Corporation’s Newcastle Mines Grouting Fund to contribute to the cost of the work.
Newcastle Art Gallery closed for expansion in January this year, with work adding 1,600 square metres of exhibition space to the existing building, which is expected to be completed by mid-2024.
The expansion will include dedicated areas for the gallery collection on the lower level, while the upper level will cater for a variety of travelling exhibitions, including international shows.
A new café and retail shop, a multi-purpose and educational program space and a secure international standard loading dock are all included in plans for the new site.
As the art collection is currently being decanted, a temporary photography studio has been set up on-site, enabling the digitisation and condition reporting of the works before being placed into offsite storage.
The community can access the collection online during the construction period, with outreach programs commencing within local schools in May.
Other special activations include events in conjunction with New Annual that will introduce local and national audiences to a new programming direction, and a podcast is also due to be released later this year.
Maia O’Connor