Calls Emerge To Save Disintegrating Historic Live Music Venue

Historic Western Sydney venue the Jolly Frog Hotel may yet be spared the wrecking ball, with the crumbling 130-year-old building the subject of renewed calls to be saved after it was gutted by a fire in January last year.

As local paper the Hawkesbury Gazette reports, the building had been empty for almost two years before the blaze, some residents even going so far as to call it an 'eyesore' at the time. A Windsor man was consequently arrested last year on suspicion of having deliberately set the building alight.

He is due to front Penrith Local Court next month, but the building has consequently sat in an increasing state of disrepair, with local campaigner and Independent candidate for Hawkesbury Kate Mackaness leading the chorus of citizens wanting the building to be saved.

"I walked around the venue at the gateway to Australia's oldest town last week and noticed the security fence is on the ground, the door on the bottom level has been kicked open and all the panels have been damaged," she told the Gazette. "It's an invite for anyone to go in there and create mischief. The damage at the moment is horrendous and there have been concerns that most of the material in the building is being stolen and souvenired."

"I am ashamed at what Council is allowing to happen," she continued. "The Hawkesbury is a special place and if you eradicate a heritage element of the region, you eradicate Hawkesbury's economic potential.

"A majority of residents have great memories of the Frog as a genuine local pub. That shouldn't be taken away from them."

However, despite the calls on the ground to fix the hotel, and the promise of a heritage assessment of the building dating back to August, city planning director Matt Owens told the paper that "there was no timeframe for when any work would start".

During its more active years, the Jolly Frog — which received its name in 1973, changing from its 1950s moniker of Podesta's Hotel, itself a successor of the original 1880s 'Carrington Hotel' deed — played host to a wealth of high-profile Aussie acts, including AC/DC, Cold Chisel and INXS.