State Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland says the prison’s closure was decided “without meaningful consultation with the community”, and “ripped millions of dollars from the local economy”.
Hundreds of jobs were lost when the low-security facility — around a 30-minute drive from Shepparton — closed on August 31, 2024.
Ms Cleeland said the government had rejected calls to recommission the prison, despite the state’s “soaring incarceration rates and growing pressure on prison capacity”.
“The decision to close Dhurringile was short-sighted and premature,” Ms Cleeland said.
“It was shut before Labor changed Victoria’s bail laws, and now the government is facing the very prison capacity pressures many warned about at the time.”
Ms Cleeland said the government’s refusal to reconsider the site raised serious questions about its long-term corrections planning.
“Dhurringile was a successful low-security prison that provided employment, supported local businesses and played an important role in the regional economy,” she said.
“With incarceration rates rising and prison capacity under increasing strain, Victorians deserve to know why a proven facility remains closed while the government searches for solutions elsewhere.”
The 286-hectare site on crown land, which includes a 68-room, 148-year-old heritage-listed double-storey mansion, stables and extensive various other infrastructure, remains for sale to government entities during an extended first right of refusal period.
The government placed an indicative sale figure of $2.5 million on the historic site soon after decommissioning was complete.
Greater Shepparton City Council submitted an informal expression of interest early in 2025, successfully applying for an extension to the first right of refusal period until April 17 the same year.
Council withdrew its interest on April 22, 2025.
Around the same time, Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority and the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation submitted their expression of interest, but, a year later, had not been presented with a definitive price from the Department of Transport and Planning, GBCMA chief executive officer Carl Walters said in April this year.
In October last year, it was revealed that maintenance at the site had cost $2.06 million for the first 12 months after the prison closed, with no income generated from leasing or farming activity.
The figure breaks down to almost $40,000 in maintenance costs each week.
The site was first established as a pastoral property, before becoming an internment camp, then a boys’ home before it was purchased by the government and converted into a minimum-security correctional facility, Dhurringile Prison, in 1965.
A government spokesperson said in April that if a sale did not occur from the first right of refusal process with the GBCMA and YYNAC, the site would be progressed to a public sale.
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