RSL NSW President Brigadier Vince Williams, CSC (Retd.) is calling on veterans across New South Wales to rise up and make their voices heard against Commonwealth Government plans to sell Victoria Barracks Sydney – warning that once this irreplaceable piece of Australia’s military heritage is gone, it is gone for good.
RSL NSW is urging its more than 30,000 members and hundreds of sub-Branches – together with veterans, serving and former serving Defence personnel, their families and Australians who value the nation’s military heritage – to contact their Federal representatives and demand the Commonwealth reverse its decision to divest the historic Paddington site.
For almost two centuries, generations of servicemen and women have walked through the gates of Victoria Barracks. Construction began in 1841 and the Barracks became home to British troops before passing to the NSW colonial forces and, following Federation, the Australian Army. The NSW contingent sent to Sudan in 1885 was recruited and trained there. The first steps to recruit forces in New South Wales for both World Wars were taken there. It housed the Royal Military College during the 1930s and has remained at the centre of Army command in New South Wales through generations of Australian military service. Today, Victoria Barracks Sydney remains an operational Defence establishment and the home of Headquarters Forces Command.
Brigadier Williams said the campaign was not simply about preserving old sandstone buildings. “This is the spiritual home of the Australian Army in New South Wales,” Brigadier Williams said. “For generations, Australian servicemen and women have marched through those gates, worked in those buildings and served our nation from that site. Some went from Victoria Barracks to war and never came home. Others returned and continued their service there. And right now, another generation of serving men and women continues that extraordinary story. Those serving members cannot publicly campaign against a decision of the government of the day. But veterans can. RSL members can. And Australians who believe our military history matters can. That is why I am asking veterans across New South Wales to stand up and speak for those who cannot. Write to your local Federal Member and Senators. Talk to your communities. Spread the word on social media. Make it clear that Australians do not support selling the spiritual home of our Army. Once Victoria Barracks is sold, it is gone forever. There is no buying it back in another 20 or 50 years when somebody finally realises what we gave away.”
Williams said the Commonwealth also needed to explain why an operational Defence establishment occupying a strategically important position on the doorstep of Australia’s largest city should be surrendered. Victoria Barracks is located minutes from Sydney’s CBD and close to major transport, health, and sporting infrastructure. It is a secure Defence site that RSL NSW believes could continue to provide an important operational capability during a future national security incident, major emergency or crisis affecting Sydney.
“At a time of increasing global uncertainty, we should be extremely cautious about permanently surrendering strategically located Defence land,” Williams said. “Victoria Barracks isn’t redundant. Defence personnel are working there today. We should be asking how this exceptional asset can continue serving Australia’s national interest for the next century – not how quickly we can put a price tag on it.”
RSL NSW is also questioning the logic of moving Defence personnel from Commonwealth-owned land into leased commercial office accommodation in Sydney. “The Commonwealth argues that Victoria Barracks will require significant expenditure over coming years. But Defence will still need somewhere for its people to work,” Williams said. “Before selling an asset Australians have owned for generations, taxpayers deserve complete transparency about the long-term cost of leasing and fitting out commercial office space elsewhere in Sydney. Why spend enormous sums fitting out leased office space when Defence owns a secure, operational military establishment a stone’s throw from the CBD? A spreadsheet might put a dollar value against Victoria Barracks. It cannot put a value on 178 years of service, sacrifice, history, and national memory,” he said.
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