Take home a piece of Orange's history

UPDATE- OCTOBER 24, 2017.

The suggestion to let Orange residents take home a brick as a momento of the former maternity ward has proved very successful and has now come to an end.

The project was also a community fund-raiser, and has raised around $1,4000 for the Orange Premi-Babes Association.

During the project, around 900 bricks were brought from the demolition site for collection to the Resource Recovery Centre on Ophir Rd.

The last of these were collected over the weekend.

The maternity ward demolition has now been completed and the maternity ward debris has been combined with other waste from the site. No further bricks can be made available as souvenirs.

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October 13, 2017.

Thousands of Orange region residents were born in the old maternity ward at Orange Base Hospital and thousands of memories were stirred as the building was demolished recently.

Given the significance of the maternity ward, for many people, residents will have the opportunity to keep a brick from the maternity ward, with donations from each brick going to the Premi-Babes Association of Orange.

Orange Mayor Reg Kidd, said the decision was made to set aside some bricks for residents to take home after several people contacted the council.

“We appreciate the building has some significance for a lot of people who had both happy and sad memories of the maternity ward,” Cr Kidd said.

“And we thought a gold-coin donation per brick to the Premi-Babes Association of Orange was a fitting way to honour those memories.

“A few people have asked to keep a piece of the building as a memento, we worked with the contractor Zauner Constructions to organise a safe way for this to happen.

“From Saturday (October 14) to Sunday November 12 we’ll have a site set up at the Ophir Road Resource Recovery Centre where anyone can visit, speak to the staff at the weighbridge, and take up to 5 bricks home, for a donation.

“People can only collect a brick at the Recovery Centre, and not to the construction site in Prince Street.

“Because of the scale and programming of the demolition, we’ll have a limited number of bricks available.

“We’re only able to run this event for about a month so if you want a brick, you’ll need to get in quick.

“Orange City council is grateful to Zauner Constructions, Demex, JR Richards & Sons and Wangarang Industries for making this project come together.”

The Premi-Babes Association of Orange Assistant Treasurer James Madden said the group was thrilled it had been chosen as the recipient of the gold coin donations.

“The Premi-Babes Association worked to help countless babies in the old maternity ward - we appreciate this donation and will be putting the money towards helping many more babies and their families at the new hospital,” Mr Madden said.

The Ophir Road Resource Recovery Centre is open 7 days a week, 8am to 5pm.

COMING DOWN: The maternity ward was demolished last week.