Maitland Council moves to hand loss-making gaol back to NSW Government

newy.com.au – Maitland councillors have voted to hand management of the historic Maitland Gaol back to the NSW Government, halting redevelopment work at the Crown land site at their final ordinary meeting of 2025.

Maitland City Council will now formally advise the state it does not intend to proceed with the costly upgrade program required to bring the former prison up to modern standards, arguing the financial burden on local ratepayers would be unsustainable. The gaol has been managed by council since 2001 but remains owned by the NSW Government.

In a statement, council said millions of dollars in operating costs had already been borne by the organisation simply to keep the doors open before the site was closed in early 2024 because of fire and electrical safety issues. A detailed scope of works to bring the facility up to contemporary operating standards identified a bill of more than $30 million.

Maitland City Council general manager Jeff Smith said the decision was about financial responsibility rather than a lack of interest in the site’s history or potential. “Council acknowledges the role the Gaol has played in the history of our city and the potential for future benefits from a tourism perspective,” he said.

“At the same time, Council has a wide array of service delivery priorities, from road maintenance to addressing our infrastructure renewal obligations, and using ratepayer funds to bring the Gaol site up to standard is unsustainable and simply not a responsible option,” Mr Smith said.

Council will ask the NSW Government to take back overall custodianship of the gaol while requesting it be allowed to continue managing the fenced portion of the site that houses The Barracks function centre. Mr Smith said council’s “long-term financial sustainability and resilience” was front of mind in making the call.

“Our vision for Maitland is a connected city with thriving communities,” he said. “To achieve this, we need to forge a resilient, sustainable future through informed planning and sound financial decisions that align with our community’s priorities and expectations.”

Maitland councillor Mitchell Griffin, writing on social media after the meeting, said an audit had found the gaol was not compliant with workplace health and safety laws and that it had been closed over the past two years as a result. He said the cost to bring the facility back to the point where it could reopen was “around $34 million”.

Cr Griffin said the gaol had never operated at a profit since opening as a tourism attraction in the early 2000s and had on average “resulted in a $1 million loss per year”. He argued that level of subsidy was “too high a burden to put on to rate payers”.

“I committed at the last election not to go down the path of a Special Rate Variation increase,” he said. “I would like to see the gates reopened ASAP, [and] the fastest way to achieve this is to hand the site back over to the State Government who have much deeper pockets than council, to fix the assett they own.”

Cr Griffin said it would be unfair to expect residents “to fork out on a site they don’t own and will never turn a profit”, and criticised the local State member as having been “missing in action” on the future of the state-owned asset since its closure.

Mr Smith said council hoped the NSW Government might eventually be in a position “to realise the future tourism potential of the Gaol”, but stressed that any major investment now needed to come from the asset owner. Formal discussions between Maitland City Council and the NSW Government on the handover of management responsibilities for the gaol site are expected to begin following the council’s resolution.