Morisset Hospital Precinct
27th June 2025
Last December I stood with the Minister for Sport and announced that land had been secured for Lake Macquarie's new sports centre. The search for the right site had been long and complex but we found a location, which was second to none, on the grounds of the Morisset Hospital. However, the project and the future of the greater Morisset Hospital precinct is under threat because the Ministry of Health does not have a master plan for the future of the precinct and has no foreseeable plans to prepare one.
The Government announced in 2023 that some Morisset Hospital services would be relocated to the new Maitland facility. It has plans to close Morisset Hospital in about 2027. Despite notifying the public of its intention to leave Morisset, the Government has no plan as to what will happen with the site afterwards. As far as I can see, it just plans to turn the lights off and leave. The State Government reserved over 1,200 hectares of land in 1900 to build Morisset Hospital, which officially opened in 1909. For over 100 years the hospital has remained under the care of the State health authority but now it appears that NSW Health will abandon it without taking responsibility for the site's infrastructure and many heritage buildings, or giving due consideration to how its exit will impact the local community.
If NSW Health decamps without planning for the resulting physical, social and economic impacts, the site will be subject to degradation, vandalism and theft rather than redevelopment. Instead of leveraging the sport and recreation amenity of the Morisset Sports Facility to attract investment, we will see vegetation overgrow the site and infrastructure fall into disrepair. I am also concerned that, without a master plan, responsibility for upgrading the enabling infrastructure needed for the Morisset Sports Facility will fall upon the Office of Sport. Make no mistake: If the funds committed to this project are eaten up by enabling works, the sports facility will not get built. The 2025-26 New South Wales budget has not allocated money to the master plan, let alone the enabling works. To that I say that the Government always knew enabling infrastructure would be needed for the sports facility, no matter the location.
It has now been six years since Myuna Bay Sport and Recreation Centre suddenly closed. The Government must deliver on its promise to build a new sports centre for the people of Lake Macquarie. That means it must fund the enabling works, along with a master plan, for the whole Morisset Hospital site. The closure of Morisset Hospital is the end of an era in Lake Macquarie and is being met with a mixed sense of nostalgia and inevitability. However, it also represents an opportunity. The hospital precinct is a significant parcel of land, which could—and should—be put to a valuable use that respects the site's natural and cultural significance. We cannot let the opportunity pass by because of a failure to properly plan for it. To do so would shortchange the people of Lake Macquarie.
I therefore call on the New South Wales Government to immediately develop a Morisset Hospital master plan that puts the people of Lake Macquarie at its heart. As a part of the process, the Government must complete an up-to-date heritage management plan so that the 14 heritage items of State significance in the Local Environmental Plan can be protected and restored. In particular, the recreation hall, despite being one of the most significant heritage buildings in Lake Macquarie, has been neglected to the point that it has been classified as condemned. That happened on the Ministry of Health's watch, and demonstrates an unbelievable, although unfortunately common, lack of care for heritage assets at the site.
I believe that the department has a moral obligation to, at the very least, plan for their restoration. NSW Health is well aware of the issues that will arise if it decamps from Morisset without preparing a master plan. It is mind-boggling that it could think of doing so when it knows that this would lead to degradation of the site and its valuable heritage buildings, undermine the viability of the Morisset Sports Facility and limit the future success of the local community. The Government and NSW Health in particular have an obligation and also an opportunity: an opportunity to partner with the Office of Sport in delivering proactive lifestyle activities for better health and to leave a positive legacy for a community who has both supported and benefited from the operation of a mental health facility at Morisset for over 100 years.