Plans to extend the Australian National Academy of Music’s lease of South Melbourne Town Hall meets opposition.

Yet another major Australian music school is in crisis, as it has emerged that the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) may be left homeless when its current lease at South Melbourne Town Hall expires in 2017.

ANAM was granted a 20 year lease in the South Melbourne Town Hall in 1997 by the City of Port Phillip, under the direction of the then Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett, following the State Government’s amalgamation of the St Kilda, South Melbourne and Port Melbourne councils. This resulted in the centralisation of all council staff from South Melbourne to the City of Port Philip in the St Kilda Town Hall, leaving the South Melbourne Town Hall vacant. Since taking up residence ANAM has paid between $95k and $116k in rental per annum.

However the loss of local municipal representation provoked anger among some in the South Melbourne community who objected to ANAM’s presence in the building. This disquiet was also fuelled at the time of the institutions founding by the reluctance of the then ANAM management to engage with the community to work through the issues. However ANAM’s current General Manager Nick Bailey insists...