Ray Walsh House remediation
Councillors will consider the future of Ray Walsh House at the Ordinary Council Meeting on Tuesday 30 June.
In the report for Councillors, General Manager Paul Bennett recommends the sale of the building and the adjacent western car park.
The recommendation also directs an Expression of Interest process to appoint an agent and method for the sale of the building.
Ray Walsh House was vacated by staff in 2022 due to the failure of the air conditioning systems and the presence of asbestos containing materials. Council has been presented with numerous reports since that time. On 14 May 2026, Council held a facilitated Town Hall meeting with the community to present information on the current status of Ray Walsh House and to hear the opinions, suggestions, concerns and questions from those present. Council agreed to accept further written submissions until 29 May 2026, following which Council would make a determination on the future of Ray Walsh House.
Community Information Session Stream
A community information session about the future of Ray Walsh House was held on Thursday 14 May at 5pm at Tamworth Town Hall.
Asbestos information video can be viewed here
Further feedback and questions
Feedback Submissions and responses (post meeting)
All pre-submitted questions and responses can be found here
Background
Council’s administrative headquarters, Ray Walsh House, was vacated in 2022 after the failure of the air conditioning system servicing three of the five floors of the building.
The presence of friable asbestos was found in Vermiculite fire protection sprayed on all structural steel floor members. This meant that the replacement of the air conditioning system was not possible without first removing the asbestos-containing material.
As an employer, Council’s key responsibility under the law is to provide a safe workplace. With the safety and wellbeing of staff foremost, there was a staged relocation of workers from the premises. The priority was determined according to the level of known potential risk to the health of staff.
Council staff have been working closely with NSW Public Works to investigate and develop options for the potential remediation and redevelopment of the building.
At the 28 May 2024 Ordinary Meeting, Councillors resolved not to remediate the building for reoccupation by Council staff and Council operations.
They also agreed to investigate options to improve accommodation for staff over the medium term of up to 10 years and have requested that the General Manager develop an options paper about the future disposal of Ray Walsh House for further consideration by Council.
Councillors also agreed to make all documents associated with the Ray Walsh House remediation available for public scrutiny.
In 2024, Council staff went through Council’s records and collated the documents for publication. Some of the documents contain commercial-in-confidence information or information from third parties and those sections have been redacted to allow Council to legally share them with our community in the interests of transparency and accountability.
In April 2025 Expressions of Interest were sought for the activation of Ray Walsh House and two submissions were received.
In September 2025 Councillors endorsed a Mayoral Minute instructing the General Manager to prepare an options paper for the future of Ray Walsh House. Since then, staff have been compiling the information available to date and understanding the costs associated with obtaining further information.
In March 2026, Councillors considered a report about the future of Ray Walsh House and possible associated costs for further investigations.
Councillors will conduct their own community consultation on the administrative headquarters to help inform a future decision around detailed planning, concepts and cost estimates, with options to be presented to the community at a Town Hall meeting should they choose to proceed with further investigations.
What's next?
On 24 March, 2026, Councillors considered a report about the future of Ray Walsh House and possible associated costs for further investigations.
The report followed a Mayoral Minute in September 2025 that instructed Council staff to determine the financial benefit for Council to undertake the removal of the asbestos contamination or reinstate the building.
Councillors will now conduct their own community consultation on the administrative headquarters to help inform a future decision around detailed planning, concepts and cost estimates.
A community information session will be held on Thursday, 14 May, 2026 at Tamworth Town Hall at 5-7pm. This will also be live streamed. The community is invited to pre-submit questions to be answered on the evening.
Document contents
Please understand that in line with the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (Section 14 Table 3 (a), (b) & (c) - Business interests of agencies and other persons), some information in the documents has been hidden from view or redacted before their publication. The redaction prevents:
- (a) commercial-in-confidence provisions of a government contract from being revealed;
- (b) the competitive commercial value of any information to any person from being diminished; and
- (c) any person's legitimate business, commercial, professional or financial interests from being prejudiced.
Some documents have been completely redacted. Where this occurs it is to comply with the Copyright Act 1968. Under the Act, because the contents of those documents are not the intellectual property of Tamworth Regional Council and it is not permitted to publish them. However, members of the community who wish to see the documents subject to Copyright can view them by appointment. Please contact our customer service team by calling 6767 5555 to make an appointment, should you wish to view these documents.