Hon Gail Gago,
Minister for Environment & Conservation,
Parliament House, Adelaide 5000

Dear Minister Gago,

There appears to be some confusion regarding our future intention to open the proposed rebuilt ruin of Marble Hill to the public. (Mark Parnell's Question without notice in the Legislative Council 05/06/08, The Independent Weekly 13/06/08 and Michael Owen in The Advertiser 16/06/08.)

We remain committed to providing public access on 7 days per year, as outlined in the Heads of Agreement document signed on May 16th. The purpose of designating 4 of these days as "pre-booked" is to enable us to control numbers and provide a more personal educational experience for participants. Any member of the public may attend by booking a place - similar to events at other historic places during History Week. We envisage the other 3 open days are likely to be on a Sunday in spring and autumn and on the Australia Day public holiday with proceeds going to charity. All open days will be advertised in advance.

In our Media Release dated Monday May 19th we said we:

"foreshadowed future use of the restored buildings as an executive retreat with an area designated as a museum, which would have public access on open days."

It has always been our vision that the museum would be in the two main eastern rooms of the governor's residence, the former morning room and drawing room, a combined area of about 1,000 square feet. These are the large rooms where the governors would have entertained visitors and therefore it seems appropriate that they become the areas of public access. We would not envisage opening the rest of the house on open days. This has always been our position. However, the final decision on any future use of any part of this building depends on approvals from the Adelaide Hills Council. Given that the property is in a high fire-risk catchment area, is heritage listed and is currently a ruin, this may be a lengthy and expensive process, and our desired outcome cannot be guaranteed, so we need to keep our options open.

We intend to maintain our commitment to open days throughout the re-building process, though obviously there will be restricted access to areas under reconstruction.

We have received tremendous support for our proposals, particularly from local Hills people, but also from members of both the National Trust and the Friends of Marble Hill, the two volunteer groups who spent many years hoping for an outcome such as this.