School plans for Carlton’s former Dan O’Connell Irish pub in doubt

The future of the former Dan O’Connell Irish pub as a primary school looks uncertain, with the planning permit for the hotel’s conversion set to expire in January while its owner is bogged down in investigations into allegations of abuse.

Fitzroy Community School bought the iconic 1912 turreted Edwardian hotel, reportedly for more than $3.2 million, in 2020 after the pub shut down as a result of the pandemic.

The alternative school planned to open a primary campus for around 100 students in the building.

A permit for the pub’s adaptation and use as “an education centre” was issued by the City of Melbourne in January 2022.

It has since been extended twice and varied slightly and is due to lapse in January 2027 if the renovation hasn’t begun.

The permit will expire in January 2029 if the work hasn’t been completed and the school started operating there.

Fitzroy Community School, founded in 1976 by former social worker Faye Berryman AO and her partner Philip O'Carroll in their North Fitzroy terrace, still operates out of the same Brunswick St house, as well as the property next door, and now has a second location in Thornbury.

The school has been run by the family for 50 years, with Ms Berryman’s sons Tim and Nick, who grew up in the school, taking on roles as principal and teacher.

Tim Berryman with his daughter outside the pub in 2021.

They have reportedly both since stopped teaching there, with Nick Berryman not currently registered as a teacher in Victoria.

Victoria Police said that allegations of sexual and physical assault at a school in North Fitzroy between 2009 and 2012 were being investigated by detectives from the Melbourne Sexual Offences & Child Abuse Investigation Team, with three men – a 54- and 55-year-old from Fitzroy North and a 48-year-old from Trawool – interviewed and released pending further enquiries.

The Berryman family have denied allegations of abuse made against them, many of which reportedly relate to acts of physical punishment that parents and former students claim were extreme and damaging.

The school told the ABC recently that it believed differing philosophies were behind the allegations because it didn’t subscribe to “permissive parenting”.

The school has also been subject to a recent “thorough investigation” by regulatory authorities, a Victorian government spokesperson said.

“Complaints from parents informed the investigations, which led to strict conditions on the school's registration remaining in place today,” the spokesperson said.

These complaints were apparently the latest in a series made by former students and parents, with an earlier set of allegations relating to events in the 1990s previously investigated and dismissed by police and other regulatory authorities.

A Prahran legal practice is now advertising an information session in July for “abuse survivors” of the Fitzroy Community School, while several high-profile former parents vouched for its integrity to the ABC.

Meanwhile, the Dan O’Connell sits gathering graffiti.

Neighbour Michael Bula, who opposed the school’s application when it went before the council in November 2021, said he had noticed people recently coming and going from the building but hoped the plan to turn it into a school wouldn’t go ahead.

He considered the building totally inappropriate as a school for “a variety of reasons”, which he had listed in his submission to the City of Melbourne’s Future Melbourne Committee, Mr Bula said.

These included its location on a “very heavy traffic road” and at the intersection of busy bike paths, its reliance on a small, unfenced dog park for outdoor play space and the lack of adequate parking in the area for school pick-ups and drop-offs.

His objections previously “fell on deaf ears,” he told Inner City News.

However, minor variations were made and conditions attached to the application by the council as a result of the concerns raised, including the addition of height controls to classrooms to reduce noise and the reduction of student numbers from the proposed 110 to 85, and staff from 12 to 10.

Fitzroy Community School’s plan received ringing endorsement from councillors in 2021 although the school was subject to several investigations into breaches of COVID-19 restrictions at the time after it was found to be at the centre of a cluster of more than 60 cases.

Then-principal Tim Berryman told reporters he believed the physical risk of the virus to children was negligible compared to the risk to their mental health caused by isolation and fear.

The school declined to comment to Inner City News on its plans for the pub or any investigations it was currently subject to. •