He says the council needs to acquire the site, and develop it into a community facility.

The premises, adjacent to the Warrnambool Railway Station, are derelict, with broken windows, trashed rooms and graffiti.

Cr Hulin said it was a “terrible indictment on our city if tourists, let alone locals, see the way that we let our city fall down”.

“The council should be contacting whatever authorities are involved with this, whether it’s the owner or the government, so that we can acquire it for future development,” he said.

“You look at this historic old house here – it could be turned into student accommodation. Its proximity to the Lake Pertobe precinct gives us enormous scope in the future to look at expanding the Fun4Kids Festival and possibly even expanding the infrastructure down here. It also gives us the opportunity to connect with the wilderness part of Lake Pertobe which gives us opportunities to teach kids from all around Australia about the environment and our rich Aboriginal past that we have around this particular area of Warrnambool,” he said.

Cr Hulin said he saw the precinct as a “tremendous opportunity” for the city to create a new attraction.

“I have been talking with council for over 12 months about this,” he said. “It seems that precious little has been done and I’m now calling on them to get their act together.”

The gasworks house was built in 1874, and was formerly the residence of the manager of the Warrnambool gasworks that had also occupied the site for more than 100 years. 

In September owner AusNet Services said it was in talks with the council about the future of the property, and officers met company representatives on site in July.

The AusNet Services spokeswoman said talks were still continuing and no decisions had yet been made on the site’s future.