The ACT Government's multi-million dollar facelift of Manuka Oval could be under a cloud after the entire ground was granted heritage protection yesterday.
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The provisional heritage registration, the forerunner of full heritage protection for the historic oval along with its caretaker's cottage, was made public along with 17 other decisions.
Upgrades to the oval worth nearly $4 million are in the planning stages.
They include 4300 temporary seats to boost the ground's capacity before Greater Western Sydney begins playing Australian Football League games there next year.
Plans are also being drawn up for a new media centre and improvements to the Hawke and Bradman stands.
Floodlights, that would allow night cricket or football to be played at Manuka are also being considered in the longer term.
But it is uncertain whether the ground's new heritage status would allow the erection of a number of new light towers around the oval.
Sports Minister Andrew Barr was only prepared to acknowledge yesterday that any work to Manuka Oval would be subject to the same constraints as any other building job on a heritage listed structure.
''Like any planning works across the territory, heritage provisions are taken into consideration when looking at options for future development,'' Mr Barr said through a spokeswoman.
In its Statement of Heritage Significance, the ACT Heritage Council cited the oval as one of the first developments of the capital, established while buildings such as Old Parliament House and Albert Hall were being erected. The oval demonstrated the importance of recreational and sporting venues for the emerging community in the 1920s.
''The heritage value of the oval is vested in its tangible fabric and intangible values - the history of the place and activity conducted there since the early 1920s, which gives the Manuka Oval its strong historic cultural and social heritage significance for the ACT community,'' the statement reads.
''The oval's prominence and importance in the community has not waivered, being the site of many significant sporting events, including the Prime Minister's XI [matches], first played at this site in 1952. The place has a significant role in the lives of the community, and is highly valued as a place of sporting matches, recreation and socialisation.''
Barton's Telopea Park also secured provisional listing in the latest round of announcements, along with the Aboriginal Digging Stick at the Cotter River,
The Starlight Drive-In Theatre sign on the Federal Highway at Watson, which ''remains as the only tangible reminder in the ACT of the iconic era of drive-ins (outdoor theatres where patrons viewed films from parked cars) which dotted the Australian landscape from the mid-20th century,'' according to the council, was also nominated for provisional registration.
The Old Coach Road at Gungahlin was also included along with the former Coggan's Bakery in Braddon.
But the Lyneham High School murals did not make the heritage cut because, bizarrely, the artwork, painted in 1970 by Cedric Flower, had been removed since their heritage nomination in 2000 and their whereabouts is unknown.