The Advocate, Wednesday November 25, 2015 – News

By BAZ RUDDICK Nov. 24, 2015, 9:08 p.m.

THE transfer of ownership of the Tiagarra building from the Devonport City Council to
the Six Rivers Aboriginal Corporation will involve a $1 transfer fee and a lease
arrangement on the land it sits on.
Council general manager Paul West said the transfer of building and
assets of Tiagarra was offered to SRAC yesterday following a council
meeting on Monday night.
“The building assets and the collection will be transferred to SRAC under
their ownership,” Mr West said.
While the structures will be gifted to the SRAC, Tiagarra sits on both
council and crown land, which will be leased to the corporation in two
leases.
“The buildings will be given to the corporation for a dollar and the lease
will be a peppercorn rental,” he said.
“They won’t be paying anything for the lease,” Mr West said.
Mr West said details of the lease were yet to be discussed.
Tiagarra has been closed for two years, during which time the council terminated the
previous lease with SRAC in October 2014.

Tiagarra will become the property of SRAC and would be up to them to “self
determine the future of the buildings, Mr West said.
“They will now be eligible to apply for grants which they wouldn’t have
been able to do before because they didn’t own the facility,” he said.
Any questions regarding the future transfer of ownership of Tiagarra from
the SRAC to a third party are dealt with in a strict clause of the new lease.
“The transfer of the lease will be on the proviso that the buildings are
being used for the purpose of which Tiagarra has been developed,” he
said.
Alderman Annette Rockliff said there would now be toing and froing with
the state government to come up with the terms for the lease agreement.
‘The idea of handing it over to SRAC is to allow them to go forward with
their plans and secure funding to upgrade it, ensure it is accurate and
make it welcoming and open,” she said.
Devonport Mayor Steve Martin said that it had become evident that the future vision
for Tiagarra would be best realised by the local Aboriginal community.