WITH an expanded modern university campus, student accommodation and a cinema complex on the way, Inveresk could become a major hub of activity for Launceston.
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The University of Tasmania has made no secret of its plans for the Inveresk site and to expand its offerings at that location, but little has been said about the future of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.
For those who haven't heard the whispers, it has been suggested that the university take over the space now occupied by the QVMAG at Inveresk.
The Launceston City Council-operated museum would then move next to its refurbished gallery at Royal Park and into the space occupied by TasTAFE offices, some courses and migrant classes.
Where those TasTAFE offices and courses go is anyone's guess, but most probably the Alanvale campus, leaving just hospitality and nursing courses next to Launceston College.
This would be a three-way deal between the university, the council and the state government.
In ongoing discussions around deregulation, the university's vice-chancellor Professor Peter Rathjen has already said the Northern campus loses money and, although universities are places of education and intellectual thought, they can only exist in a business context.
The university's Provost Professor Mike Calford said on ABC radio last Friday morning that the university envisioned a focus on three main schools in Launceston: education, nursing and architecture.
One of these is already based at Inveresk, and the other two could be easily moved there.
Although the School of Visual and Performing Arts is now at Inveresk, it makes no sense for it to remain with millions of dollars being poured into a hi-tech Tasmanian College of the Arts development in Hobart.
The potential move and little funding allocated in the council's draft budget towards works at the museum's Inveresk site could certainly lend itself to this idea.
There is $90,000 in capital works set aside for the QVMAG Inveresk site, which includes storage cases, a security swipe card system and a railway awning cover - certainly nothing of significance.
A further $46,000 has been allocated for works at the Wellington Street Royal Park site, including TasTAFE store roofing and downpipe repair and science collection store.
Although this is only $46,000, if the council was able to move into the Education Department building, it may alleviate some of the cost pressures it feels burdened with regarding the operation of a regional facility with little state government help.
The museum could be mothballed in the short term, as was the gallery, when refurbishment works were undertaken there.
Who pays for the department building to be refurbished to cater for the museum would remain something to be nutted out - and it would be no surprise at all if this remains in the too hard basket in the short term with no money on the horizon.
However, of course, the university is on a deadline to get its $15.6 million accommodation works at Inveresk completed in time for the start of the 2016 academic year, as part of the federal government's National Rental Affordability Scheme.
In late March, it was also reported that Metro Cinemas was keen to start building works at Inveresk for its 1000-seat complex.
The end result for the university and council could certainly be a new lease of life for Inveresk, as well as a consolidation of council and state government facilities.
