The Abu Simbel complex continues to pervade Australian heritage conservation –i.e. if it is in the way of development, just move it to higher ground.
Episode 5 spends an inordinate amount of time on the false hope that Emmaville could be the lost Banjo Paterson birthplace (but I thought we didn't celebrate our hero's birthplaces). A cursory examination of easily accessible records supports the majority view that Banjo was born at the main Narrambla homestead "8 chains north east of the memorial" erected for the purpose in 1947. At least one account confirms its location on land donated by a Lane decedent (the same owners when Paterson was born) and that the house was already demolished by 1946. The unveiling was done by Banjo's widow. Elsewhere the story of Emmaville can be traced through later owners including James Farrell, after whom the road it is on is named. Having had first hand experience of a number of internecine historical society squabbles, I know to leave them alone, and that it is rare for there to be a logical assessment of historical and archaeological evidence in such cases. The producers of the series evidently researched Paterson’s origins "but were happy to keep his exact birthplace a mystery".
The artificial conflict between the birthplace rivals is matched by the fight between memorial rivals, with the big statue people and the big hat shaped pergola people arguing it out in council. There might also be some subtle conspiracy theorist here to, with the main instigator being the mysterious Rotary Club. The artificial urgency created by the need to 'rescue' the building provides the drama but left me wondering what was the story about the development causing the problem in the first place.
Some background on where the Emmaville/Patterson connection came from would have been good (sounded like just wishful thinking), and also why, what is clearly an important prefabricated timber building, went un-noticed in either the Orange Heritage Study, the council's LEP, or the previous historical accounts of the district. Even if it is not Banjo's birthplace, an important early house still has integrity despite being a sorry ruin. But what happened to the little outbuilding?, why is the chimney truncated?, and have they reversed the front? Similarly there are some fascinating elements to the building itself – the combination of imported Oregon? prefab – similar to the Fryerstown Weslyan Hall, nominally dated to the early 1870s. The pile of bricks left from Templer's Mill near the real Narrabla homestead, was described as "a classified historic building which should be preserved" in 1968, so one wonders who blew it up in 1971 and why.
This is another case where the archaeology is pretty obvious, as evident in the ABC's photos, and Reg's comment that they will carry out archaeological investigations to solve the issue. Too late probably for whatever was under or around Emmaville in its original location. I don't always think there needs to be a team of experts to run these things and annoy the locals, but a Conservation Management Plan and archaeological assessment could have made an important contribution. At least they might have gotten the iron brand right, while Miles Lewis has suggested some possible American manufacturers such as W H Wrigley and William Elford, and even if viewers are not concerned about the difference between tongue and groove, 'v joint' and the more correct horizontal quirked bead boards, it doesn't hurt to get it right. It was a shame Peter Kirschner couldn’t narrate the entire episode. He seemed far more knowledgeable.
Graeme Blundell pointed out the highly pleasurable camera movements, "placing each property exquisitely in the landscape, moving from ground level and soaring above the build, the lenses and focus changed remotely, …, creating a new highly cinematic aesthetic for property TV". – but we are probably coming to expect this since the ubiquity of the use of drones for everything from real estate adds to filming your snow trip. Blundell also catches the idea in "aspirational property evangelism". Whether we like it or not, the will probably end up steering the way restoration is done. Already it is being used by real estate journalists as a benchmark.
Banjo Paterson Parks can be found all over the place Lynbrook, Ipswich, Gladesville, Jindabyne and Yass. I liked the big hat idea, but an online pole seems to have brought them back to their senses so the hat is off now.
Gary Vines' personal blog, mostly about archaeology and history, and some stuff about the world around me.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Gervasoni farm - Restoration Australia Episode 4,
Sibella was struggling this time to get
Marnie and Dale to fight; for all the discomfort that taking on such a project
and lifestyle involved, they seemed pretty level headed and calm. When the show
was announced by Richard Finlayson back in November 2014, the
line was: "stylist Sibella Court follows a group of Aussie battlers who
are working to restore some amazing Australian heritage buildings in
RESTORATION AUSTRALIA". So the participants were labelled and stereotyped from
the start.
The antagonist this time was the poor
council building permit officer. At least four times we are told how the work
is being held up by slow council approval. The "Piss off heritage
people" was given plenty of prominence. A shame really, since the show was
a lost opportunity for bringing parties together. Preserving and re-using old
buildings has to be a compromise between conservation and change, something evident
in every choice that each
of the restorers in this show make. Perpetuating the conflict myth only serves
to further distort public views. A case in point is Reimund Zunde's photostory on Vince. On
the surface it seems to be a proud old man surrounded by his family history,
but look deeper and the photos speak of insularity, superstition and decay. He was greatly dishonoured
in this show. Lisa
G. has also filled
us in on the dynamite myth. The only damage I could see looked pretty much like
water had undermined the wall after the adjoining roof collapsed.
A look at the Heritage Study citation
shows some discrepancies with the way the show describes the place. No mention
of Granny's House or a Blacksmith, and the real estate listing
suggests Granny's house is earlier than the big house. As Lisa suggested, it
would be useful to update the citation and statement of significance. Site
descriptions are sparse and I can't find the HV permit, but looking at some photos, it
seems there were details of history, fabric and potential archaeology that might not have been given the study
they deserved. The best-practice approach would be a Conservation Plan, but
what happens when the battler
can't afford best practice, and the heritage people would rather see anything done rather than inevitable decay. Some heritage might just be
considered sacrificial, either because its state of decay and the economics mean that no one will ever
front up the repair cost, or that if someone is crazy enough to do something
with it, they should be given all possible leeway, because otherwise it would
just crumble to dust.
One irony is that if it were to crumble,
it would probably become more obviously an archaeological site, and so the
level of scientific rigour and excavation would be more likely to be applied.
For example the nearby "Former Gervasoni Farm Building Ruins" are on
the inventory, but not the register H7723-1165. I saw archaeology everywhere in
the show, but the "3-400mm of crap" in the basement floor seems to
have just been dug out and dumped. I guess it is in a secondary depositional
context now.
Another irony of course is that as the
place is more lived in, with the accoutrements of modern comfort, it will be
less picturesque. The subtle patina of age and "ruin aesthetic" that
attracts people to it now will
be diminished. The old chestnut about distinguishing between what is old and
the' definitely new' results in the PWD toolshed extension while the new layers
over the existing iron roof have distorted the original proportions.
There is a well understood aesthetic
appreciate often applied to such projects in Europe – in
fact whole real estate companies devoted to selling ruins for
reconstruction and restoration. I
will give Marnie and Dale time and the benefit of the doubt, but the concrete
slabs, tin sheds and penchant for pushing walls around with screw jacks doesn't
fill me with confidence that my own heritage aesthetic will be satisfied.
Speaking of screw jacks or acrow props, I
would say that one good reason for the "bossy bureaucrats" permits
and heritage red tape is to protect the restorer's from themselves.
g
Update
In 2017 the big house was nearly ready to move in and in May this year the verandah had been reconstructed. In the absence of reality TV, the owners seem to have managed to do some actual restoration.
https://www.facebook.com/TheOldStonehouse1854/
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Restoration Australia - quick review Episode 3, Harrington Street Hobart
Episode
3 sees Haydn and Penny on a 20 year Sisyphean task to restore
an 1840s
Hobart shop.
Good
luck to them and hope they get to enjoy their hard work, before going
off to rescue the next conservation lost cause.
This
time the baddie was the Tasmanian Heritage Council wanting to delist
the building and leave it to the whims of future avaricious
developers. But Haydn and Penny, well Haydn alone really, was going
to fight for it. The unsung heroes of heritage are the people who
stubbornly hang on to a dilapidated old shack despite all the
criticism, and in so doing, give it some breathing space until public
attitudes, government regulations or market forces come round to
recognising it is worth keeping permanently.
The
bigger
heritage story,
however, – of the proposed massive reduction in the number of
places protected under the Tasmania Heritage Register - was lost in
the ungenerous main themes of the story – Haydn takes forever to do
things and never finishes a project, and Penny resents it and so they
bicker – a heritage soapy. But under the guise of "Reviewing
the integrity of the Tasmanian Heritage Register"
a Tasmanian government directive is to cut
the list by a third.
Was the chair of the Heritage Council, Dianne Snowden herself, in
hardhat, steelcaps and fluros, to put a more friendly face on the
policy that has led to some severe
criticism?
In
a contradictory bit of omission, probably because it does not fit the
struggle narrative, there is no mention of the $13000 grant for works
to the building from the Heritage
Conservation Funding Program,
deadlines for spending of which have been extended.
Haydn
and Penny must have a pretty strong relationship to weather the
restoration struggles (as Sibella portrayed them). The obsessive
theme comes through again however, with a bit of Anglo-Australian
American
Pickers
thrown in for good measure. There is a fair bit of emphasis on the
psychological damage of "doing the hard way" such as
cutting and dressing replacement timber from scratch, hand plastering
(again) and shingling, and not enough on the personal
achievement and aesthetic satisfaction.
Again,
not wishing to labour the comparison with Grand Designs, the
implications of personality, motivations and relationships don't
always help inform the building story. Or they are just too
simplistic - for example, the narrative puts the line that the place
was nearly destroyed by fire and the project set back years, because
Haydn took too long to set things right. When the reality is that
care for our history is not always accompanied by the means to
protect it. The oft-repeated rule is that a project can be quick, or
cheap, or high quality, and sometimes a combination of two, but never
all three.
I
found a hint that there was some archaeology associated with this
site, which helped date it. Nick Brodie, (described by Andrew
Zacharek
as "historian and archaeologist and Hobart's answer to the Time
Team") evidently dug into archives and under floor
deposits to determine the age of the building, its builder and dated
artefacts from its industrial history.
Another
developing (but disguised) theme in the show seems to be how
narrative complexity gives way to melodrama. Why bother with details
and facts when you can just show people arguing, which is how the
show unfortunately finishes, despite Sibella's little bit of
psychotherapy. The emotive music in the premature climax, doesn't
help either, certainly in terms of fitting the images since the
building only looks halfway there, rather than the 'incredible'
phoenix risen from the ashes.
Restoration Australia - quick review, Episode 2 Woodcot Park Tarraville
Another wonderful couple in Jo and Marcus, who were willing to
put common sense out on the back porch and get stuck in. I suspect heritage has
a high degree of obsessive compulsive behaviour disguised as attention to
detail, meticulous authenticity and traditional craftsmanship.
Archaeology also attracts a similar personality type, what with all those nail
typologies and tiny flakes of stone, shame there was not some more overt
archaeological references.
The dramatic narrative in this case seems to have mostly
revolved around the hard plastering. Would the traditional plaster hold up,
will Markus be able to do it himself, will it ever get finished? Then there was
the 'incredible' (how many times was that said) authentic detail and
traditional craft being lavished on joinery, wallpaper, etc. Who was the 'lady
in Melbourne who hand blocks them' Barbara Wilding? A bit of a plug for the
practitioners surely wouldn't hurt the ABC's no advertising policy.
I recall there was a National Trust visit to the house about 5-6
years ago. Some of the unique construction details pointed out then included
the unusual wall cladding which originally used stretched oil cloth used to
simulate stucco. No mention of this, although there was a scene of taking off
some later weatherboards. There was also a prefab timber and iron room used as
a kitchen, but I couldn't tell if this was part of the restoration. It
might not have been of interest to the general audience, but some of this
technical stuff must have an audience out there, after all we get every detail
of the metal fatigue of pop-rivets in 'Air Crash Investigation'. Another missed
opportunity was the potential use of the John
Collins photos in the show's before and after transitions (a sort of slow
spreading mould transition – love those digital effects).
Tim Smith's comment about Heritage Victoria being involved was
not evident in the show – no troublesome clipboard-wielding heritage
bureaucrats to be seen. Did this confuse the narrative, or perhaps the shooting
schedule just left them out, but it would have been nice to see a HV permits
officer in the picture – putting a human face to the red tape.
There are a few
local people who will be greatly cheered to see what Jo and Marcus have
done, especially since it was another case of almost too late. So lets
celebrate the people who find an obsession that preserves and creates heritage
(didn't really need the ghost story though).
Restoration Australia - quick review Episode 1 Keith Hall
Saw the show, liked
some bits and not others. Overly and artificially dramatic, but that seems to
be the way of these shows, and unfortunately the host does not have the
intelligent philosophical outlook of Kevin McLeod. A couple of things grated
though. The depiction of advisors as some sort of bogey women, doesn't
gel when the site is not on the Heritage Overlay or any other heritage list,
and the fearful $50,000 bond and time limits would seem red herrings since such
they are regularly placed on building projects to protect the council and
ratepayers from shonky practice. I would be confident that the council would be
sympathetic to extending both as needed, even with only minimal progress shown.
While
the before and after transitions were interesting, the camera work doesn't have
the sophistication of Grand Designs, and really fails to capture the
architectural spaces and qualities of the building effectively. The narration
and analysis was also unsophisticated, lacking explanation of technical issues.
The dramatic music and repetitive narrative distracts from the real qualities
clay, the builder has for his project. His pragmatic response to the dormer
windows chapter shows how the show's timbre could have been more comfortably
directed away from the 'reality TV' fake drama.
Timing
of the visits could have been better. We get a sense of how slow the stonework
is to begin with, then suddenly the walls are done, the floors and cleanings
are in and the roof timbers are up. I felt like we missed all the exiting parts
of the build and were just left with the crooked barge-board event.
Some
of the historical background may have been confused. William and John Morrison
selected several blocks in the 1880s and 1900s, William Morrison was also a
soldier – a Sergeant in 1915 and Lieutenant in 1918 and submitted
evidence to the Soldier Settlement Commission – see the Argus 10/8/1925, (or is
this William the son?) Brother John also served, while the family retained the
farm into the late 1920s at least. How soldier settlement brought the
abandonment of the farm is not clear. The Eldorado attractions website calls
the place Kelvin Hall.
Even
though there were no heritage controls and the appearance of Deb Kemp may have
been for effect (someone can put me right here) there were some real heritage
issues. Is the surrounding decking appropriate? Does the big shed overwhelm the
house? Was the big tree dead and did it have to go? Was there an underfloor
archaeological deposit being dug out, and is that where Morrison's chisel came
from?
But
good on Clay and Narelle for recovering a building that would otherwise have
slowly disappeared.
And
it won its timeslot and beat the Spelling Bee in the ratings
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