Willow Cottage Balmain - Restoration Australia Season 4, Episode 7

Host Anthony Burke meets Martin Nix who is restoring an 1850s workers cottage in Balmain on Sydney Harbour, all while dealing with a recent family tragedy.

Am I getting jaded that a program purported to be about restoring old houses needs a personal tragedy to sell it?  The usual trope for these shows is about the stress on relationships and budgets. But when the people and houses are clearly in the top percentile for wealth and price, the producers need something else to give the show an edge. One wonders what the casting interviews must be like.

The final installment in Renovation Australia is the most expensive property yet. Sold on 2014 for an "outrageous" $2.68 million, $830,000 above the reserve, described as a dump at the time. I guess everyone wants to live on the harbour and only those with the millions to spend can do it.

A couple of years later, still dilapidated, it went for $2.9 million with "awe-inspiring views across the water to the Harbour Bridge and Barangaroo" and approved architectural plans designed to completely renovate the home, include a pool and provide for a stunning transformation into a sought-after family residence. And then again for $2,95 million. Sydney houses are more like Bitcoin than places to live. 

Martin Nix has another $1.3 million to put into the reno, and has engaged Chris from CKJ Builders, who has the experience, both in careful restoration and high end new builds. We are told Mr Nix understands and appreciates buildings because he heads a construction survey company. Then Burke pipes in with his usual warnings of 'stringent heritage controls', 'onerous heritage restrictions' and an 'extreme' historic overlay, as if the council or NSW Heritage Office are some kind of Spanish Inquisition intent on torturing prospective renovators. Burke also claims that 'heritage restrictions mean knocking down original walls isn't an option', and yet the first we see of the interior is a building with most of the internal structure and lining already removed. 

There is plenty of evidence that the heritage values of the site warrant protecting the fabric, including a well-preserved timber shingle roof and very rare brick nogging in the walls. In a strange detail of doubtful heritage administration there is apparently no heritage overlay on the windows. 

The language Burke uses only perpetuates an attitude that heritage is a bad thing that gets in the way of people's right to enjoy their own property. And yet without the regulations there would be no heritage buildings to restore and no Restoration Australia.

Planning approvals can be sourced on-line these days, and browsing them shows that they might have included a range of conditions including deletion of the proposed basement. The Council report states:

Council’s Heritage Advisor has advised that every care should be taken to retain the remaining fabric of this outbuilding and maintain its structural integrity, with any reconstruction maintaining legibility between the old and new sections of the wall to allow interpretation of old fabric and guide future changes to the outbuilding. Visibility to the timber levelling plates embedded in the brick wall must be retained. Different finishes must be used in the addition, to that used in the outbuilding to enable the interpretation of this early construction technique. The modification will be conditioned accordingly to ensure that the elevation drawings are consistent with the floor plans. 

Further to the above, in the event of any approved excavation, a condition of consent for unexpected findings will be necessary.

 There certainly looks like archaeological potential on the site. another condition of their permit was:

Condition 57A of the DA states. "If unexpected archaeological deposits or Aboriginal objects are found during the works covered by this approval, work must cease in the affected area(s) and the Department of Premier, Cabinet and Heritage must be notified through the Environment Line. Additional assessment and approval pursuant to the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 may be required prior to works continuing in the affected area(s) based on the nature of the discovery. Council’s Aboriginal Liaison officer is also to be notified.

There was mention of archaeology in the show, despite some treasure hunting banter about old bottles, newspapers and marbles. An underfloor deposit of rubble suggest some potential and a nice section of humic soil over the bedrock is revealed for the pool.

Historian Mark Dunn has a brief cameo to set the scene and remind us of the industrial origins and working class credibility that once came from doing a Balmain renovation. Shame he didn't mention the most famous Balmain boy.

The Leichart historical journal offers the following:

WILLIAM JAMES: The land adjoining the park was owned by William James who combined property development with the trade of woolsorter. He bought the land in 1853 from Griffiths and Fanning and built two houses (Willow Cottages, 1-3 James Lane) facing the water. After his death in 1882 his widow, Jane, who lived in one of the cottages sold the land on Darling Street to a builder, John Dobbie, in 1884. He built a row of six houses which he called Plym Terrace. Marching down to Thornton Park, each house in the terrace has two storeys above the street with a basement opening on to a sunken area. Built of brick and surfaced with stucco, Plym Terrace inevitably suffered later unsympathetic improvements. In Darling Street on the high side of the lane that took his name, William James built Devonshire Cottage in about 1860. Joshua George, one of Balmain's watermen lived there from 1860 until his death in 1884. His widow, Isabella, lived on there until she died in 1912. The cottage is now the nucleus of 33 Darling Street. Next door was another small cottage (now demolished), also built by James at about the same time. The cottage became part of the estate of Captain Lewis Truscott of Balmain East.

 There are a few bits of the old house that survive the renovation and can still be seen. The chimney breast sits in the middle of the house, with the walls around it removed.

A patch of the shingles is revealed in the new attic bathroom...

but another slab is cut out for a dormer.

Some brick nogging behind a glass splashback,

a bit of sandstone is left in the basement,

and a feature wall of sandstone is in the bedroom.

A redeeming aspect of the episode is the story told by the Neil about the previous owner Lex Watson, a powerful advocate for gay rights (when Balmain was still a place open to the masses); his parties in the garden and the sad decline of the house and garden when he became sick and died in 2016. Whether intended or not, the 'renovation as therapy' theme seems to permeate the program, as if a person's health and wellbeing was intrinsically tied to the quality of the finishes and fittings in their home.

The garden is gone of course, first the big Jacaranda...

and then everything else except a lonely palm.

I guess there is no room for natural beauty in the balance between heritage and modern lifestyle.

This appears to be the last episode in Season 4. I think I am glad. Working in the heritage field, you learn about and aspire to best practice and try to adhere to the Burra charter. but in the real world, most heritage conservation work is a compromise that is strongly weighted to the fads and fashions of interior decoration and lifestyle aspirations. Few are willing to live in the small, simple accommodation of the nineteenth century despite the essential needs of shelter, warmth and beauty being supplied by the minimum of intervention.

The Lawns Kyneton Restoration Australia Season 4 Episode 6

Host Anthony Burke meets a couple who have purchased one of the most significant buildings in the historic town of Kyneton, Victoria.

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With much of the restoration work happening without the cameras present, Burke's narrative is reduced to a holiday travelogue rabbiting on about Kyneton as the picturesque day trip destination of cafes and bric-a-brac. We get more than the usual driving montages with introductions, recaps, summaries and "how will they ballance accurate heritage with modern lifestyle" platitudes. We get a glimpse of the poor Kyneton hospital during his drive around Shannon' s home town. It is derelict and fenced off. Will that ever get revived? There is even a token first nations interlude to mention Mt William Greenstone in the same segment as Kyneton bluestone.

The scripting for all four seasons of Restoration Australia has been uniformly pedestrian. Either the three hosts so far have been evenly matched in their inadequacy for the job of making up their own words, or there has been a consistent bad writer  banging away at the word processor. Whoever is responsible, we miss out on the depth of history that can be revealed in the fabric of old buildings or an appreciation of how that historic fabric influences and enriches our lives.

The Lawns is described as "one of the oldest and most notable surviving Victorian Manor houses of its era, in Australia" and "one of the last freestanding ornate timber buildings from the late 1800s in the area." This seems firstly an unnecessary superlative and unlikely to be true, and the second part a series of qualifications that suggest Burke doesn't really know why it is important. "Manor house" is not a particularly Australian house type, generally confined to the snobbier kind of bed and breakfast, new housing estate, or McMansion. There are far more notable historic buildings named "Manor House" in Lilydale, Hamilton and Bacchus Marsh.

The Lawns is a reasonably attractive Victorian gabled timber house possibly a bit neo gothic but definitely not Georgian. It has a couple of refinement in plaster decoration and joinery but the unusual aspect is its odd floor plan and a wide off-centre facade with mismatched gables at each end. Behind is a fairly standard Victorian double hipped four square centre hall layout. It looks like an addition to make a status statement.

We learn about the original owner's business and horse racing activities from local historial Larina Stauch, and joint author of a wonderful new Kyneton pictorial history. No.69 Wedge Street was built around 1871 for local brewer, Robert Cock, son of South Australian pioneer Robert Cock (also a brewer at Mt. Gambier) who was notable among other things for paying rent to traditional Aboriginal owners.

Robert senior died in 1871, so it might be that the son used the inheritance to build himself a new house in Kyneton. Cock had followed on in his father's trade commencing a brewery in Kyneton with partner Johnson by at least 1865. His younger brother James inherited and ran the Mt Gambier brewery. 

A later owner, draper Hugh Rawson MLA may have been responsible for the extensions, including the odd asymmetry and 1920s looking sideways bay window, so he could entertain his constituents and political donors.

By the time Shannon and Liza Boyers forked out the $1.6 million for Cock's old house, it could be described as rundown with an overgrown garden, but relatively recent and still online real estate agents photos show a reasonably cared for house. What a difference a couple of years of neglect can make.

The series continues the model now well established of showing well off couples paying capable contractors to do the job right. At least the tradies are getting their proper recognition even though they usually only have first names. Shannon has "scoured the country to find the best, highly skilled tradespeople."

He didn't have to go to such lengths for the most part, as neither paint not internal alteration controls exist in the HO, although tree controls do, so the specialist gardeners were a good idea. Permits were obtained in several stages although Burke is silent on the "trouble with council" trope this time.

We see a repeat of the previous episode's abhorrence of colour, as the Victorianish but probably 1980s wallpapers are stripped and everything goes white. There are plans for some wall knockings out and an "orangerie". But mostly its is restumping, replastering and painting.

Scott McMillan is a Scottish plasterer with extensive  experience in historical restoration using traditional methods on behalf of Historic Scotland. He was brought out to Australia to fill a skills gap in Brisbane and was flown dow specially to do the Kyneton job. Here he sources, mixes and applies horsehair-reinforced solid plaster over renovated battens after stripping off the detached and "drummy" old stuff.

With an Australian offsider Paulie he pulls down the Gyprock plaster board and the water damaged ceiling in the hall. We don't get to see how they get the new plaster to stick above their heads - a task that would seem impossible to anyone taking their reno queues from The Block. 

Stonemason Huntly Barton is one of the few skilled dry stone wallers in Victoria. Conveniently situated at the longstanding Kyneton stonemason WT Jones just up the road. He has responsibly for the OCD sawn stone threshold and edging in the garden since there is neither mortgaged stone in the house or dry stone walls in the garden. A waste of his talents really.

Roland Hiller is woodgrain faux bois painter. He gets to redo the front door, while traditional locksmith Aaron reconditions the carpenter lock, even polishing up the key- possibly a newly made one. It feels like the Boyes are playing up to the cameras with this one. "Performative restoration."

Luke (Sinderberry) from VR Builders uses all the right terms -  "like for like", "period correct", "authentic materials". He knows his stuff.

The women gardeners don't get names but they do have the right terms determining "period specific species" to make the grounds as heritagy as the building. They may be from Ranges Landcare Group, who we see sieving and spreading topsoil  

The wealthy versus battler switch is best represented by the hunt for the right chandelier. Unashamedly referred to as "...a symbol of luxury and social standing emblematic of the upper echelons of society". Shannon was after all a tour guide at Glin Gastle and steward and butler at Government House. The orangerie, which must be the ultimate in conspicuous consumption, is abandoned due to time, money and covid constraints, and instead the 1950s altered outbuildings are restored. This reveals a possible earlier building, perhaps a built in verandah. Have we missed the archaeological assessment?

Burke struggles to make the drama happen. All the stress supposedly created by their commitment to authenticity and detail is dissipated by the calm efficiency of the tradespeople doing all of the actual work.

It is a lovely enchanting house and garden that shows what money can do. $1.6 mill and $600G for restoration without the orangerie. And not a mention of the heritage officer.

Seacroft Fernhill Restoration Australia Season 4 Episode 5

Host Anthony Burke meets a couple who are saving an important example of Federation Queen Anne architecture in coastal NSW, while dealing with a profound health crisis.

Has there always to be a personal tragedy behind every reality show episode? 

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But in this case Dutchman (Hollandischer, Nederlandertje?) Pieter, has every reason to give up on the restoration project and just go find a proper comfortable house to live in. But he has found the distraction he needs,  possibly to the point of obsession, even building a scale model to test his design and decoration ideas.

Perhaps there is a symbiotic relationship that helps heal both weary, crumbling body and neglected house.

His partner Mattie seems to get it. Between them they needed a project and Seacroft certainly fits the bill. Quite a number of bills it seems. So many that Pietre needs to do some hands on restoration himself just so can reclaim some ownership of the project and isn't just the signer of cheques.

Season 4 has dropped the "struggling battlers doing it by themselves" narrative in favour of better financed couples  style and the sense to engage competent building contractors. The builders have turned out to be the real stars of this season. 

I think I can guess why. The doityourself stories take a long time to unfold. Kevin McLeod has been going back to the same houses for decades. This must put pressure on the production budget. There is also the risk of not meeting the schedule deadlines. We can only guess what teams of real tradies are waiting in the wings of The Block, Renovation Rescue, and their ilk, who jump out when the cameras turn away to make sure the job gets done.

Fremantle Productions may well have decided the formula doesn't actually need construction site drama, so they have cast for personal drama instead.

Located at Fernhill near Wollongong, Seacroft was once part of a 1,920 acre grant, 'Balgownie', to John Buckland.  John Stewart, a local member of the NSW Parliament, veterinary surgeon and land speculator. bought part of it. Stewart also owned Keera Vale house (Bukari St, West Wollongong) that was the subject of a previous episode of Restoration Australia.

Stewart died in 1896 and his sons subdivided the 40 acres into 157 allotments in 1904 but only 53 sold. Auctioneer W H Rees sold a few more in 1906 including several to James Thomas Watson who then sold them in July 1908 to Stanley Ewart Elphinstone. [NSW Land Title 1659-231]  Elphinstone was a local builder and land developer whose mother, Annie, acquired lots 18 and 19 in 1905.  Elphinstone mortgaged the land in 1909 and may have used the funds to build the house.  The property was sold again in 1914 to Lawrence Crofton. Thereafter ownership alternated between members of the Crofton and Collier families who were related, Joseph Collier marrying Mary Kathleen Crofton, Daughter of Lawrence and Winifred Crofton in 1923.   Mrs Collier appears to have lived a comfortable life, taking her holidays in Elizabeth Bay. 

A local auction company got it a bit confused with its architectural periods describing it as a Federation "Queen Anne" style, but also that it was from the 1890s. They sold it for $650,000 as a unique restoration opportunity and as "one of Fernhill's most historical federation heritage listed homes"

We are told that the house was probably a display home for a new subdivision, and that most of the other houses in the estate have been replaced by brick veneers and units. It is hemmed in by modern houses.

Seacroft certainly needs someone to come to its rescue. It's problems are evident, even though inside doesn't look too bad. I admit I don't know how these things work, and that a bit of chocking, patching, painting and making do is not enough for most people. Restored has to mean like new.

The rescuer is Mark the builder. Mark Tarasenko really needs more acknowledgement for the work he has done. Like most of the people doing the important work on RA, he isn't allowed a surname, or a credit to his company, Eastbourne Builders in the show.  He and his firm have in fact been awarded by the National Trust for their work on an adaptive reuse project of the Old Bulli Railway Guesthouse. 

Similarly, the window restoration is credited only to 'Stuart,' although a glimpse of his workshop shows he is in fact Stuart Montague of the Illawarra Woodwork School.

The same goes for historian Meredith (Hutton, chairwoman of the Illawarra-Shoalhaven Historical Society) and fireplace restorers Stephen and Joe (sorry I could not find them). 

The comparison with the other resto shows is quite marked. Where they constantly plug their suppliers and sponsors, Freemantle Media must be contracted to meet the ABC 'no advertising' rules.

The before view shows that the floorboards have already been pulled up (wonder what happened to them and how bad they could have been, since the rest of the interior is timber lined and looks completely sound)...

But then we see it a bit later and all the lining boards have gone too, and most of the internal wall frames have been redone in pine...

...and the weatherboards have been pulled off (although at least some are evidently planed and put back with replicated profile boards doing most of the work...

... and then the roofing iron is stripped...

...and the metal ceiling...

Some of it must have been retained because Mark went to a lot of trouble to pull the frames back into place.

One element that gets a fair bit of attention is the shingle skirted and capped bay window. The window frames are reglazed to improve insulation qualities by the expert 'Stuart', and the shingles are replaced. But the originals had chamfered corners, 7 rows become 4 with a couple of weatherboards finishing it off, and the contrasting terracotta colour (in reference to the tudor clay wall tiles they replicate) is replaced with off white, which is the colour of everything tastefull of course.

What else is missing from the episode is the obligatory dreaded heritage expert. Perhaps because they couldn't find an angle to paint them as evil. Pietre later said he agreed to participate in the filming out of a sense of civic duty and to thank Wollongong Council's (un-named) heritage experts for all their advice.

Like in much of the Illawarra, mining and miners have left the area and new residents pick out the bits of heritage worth preserving. So the fanciest house in the Fernhill subdivision is considered heritage and gets restored (in a manner of speaking), while the rest of the miners' cottages are left to their own (and developers') devices. There are a few there if you want to look, but they are unlikely to survive the next wave of urban consolidation and aspirational home modernisation.

And of poor Seacroft, it looks outwardly like its Federation/Queen Anne/ Edwardian/Arts and Craft/ Carpenter Gothic original. Except it's not original. Barely a 4 by 2 survives from the house that was there. It is a replicant posing as heritage, and yet the good professor dispenses with his usual  line about them risking losing what makes the place special in their quest for modernising and proclaims it 'a good thing'.

Appendix A

The Illawarra Local Environment Plan, (Item No 6212) includes a well researched history by Zoran Popovic, which, because it gives such a complete story about the house I put in full here:

The house at 457-459 Princes Highway is of significance for Wollongong for historical, associative and aesthetic reasons, and as a representative example of Federation timber cottages in the local area and  is an excellent example of Federation Queen Anne style architecture, one of few remaining in the Illawarra. "Seacroft" house is one of the earliest buildings in Fernhill circa 1914, if not the oldest standing today. The house is also associated with Lawrence Crofton, a well-respected early landowner in Tarrawanna’s first subdivision. The building presents as having a high degree of integrity when viewed externally, and makes a strong contribution to the wider area character.

The Fernhill Subdivision of the Tarrawanna Township finally occurred on Saturday December 3rd, 1904. At this point, the Princes Highway was known as the Main South Coast Road (or even just “Main Road”), and Douglas, Pringle and Charles Roads seemingly stop all of a sudden – typical of an early subdivision. On the 1904 subdivision poster, Fernhill is advertised as being near “Corrimal-Balgownie & Mt. Pleasant Coal Mines”, confirming that proximity to the mines was still an important factor.12 It is very likely that the creation of Fernhill, similar to that of Tarrawanna and Balgownie, came entirely out of housing demand from miners.

It should be noted that according to the subdivision plan and an article in the Illawarra Mercury dated Saturday December 10th, 1904 – Lots 18 and 19 were purchased by Mr. Elphinstone and 20, 21 and 22 (the location of Seacroft House) were purchased by a J. W. Russell.

Lawrence Crofton

After acquiring James Brooker’s farmhouse in 189114 and moving in with his wife and children, they lived without incident until 1895, when the kitchen caught fire and burned the house down.Now is the first of a number of presumptions (as documented evidence of events around this time and place is limited). It can be assumed that he began reconstruction of his home shortly after this event, and as a landowner in Tarrawanna, construction on other homes as well. The Illawarra Mercury issue Saturday June 20th, 1903 states that Lawrence Crofton is “erecting another new cottage at Tarrawanna”.It is unlikely this refers to Seacroft House as further evidence suggests otherwise; it does however confirm that Crofton has built a number of other cottages.

South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus issue Friday January 22nd,1915 – “To let, Cottage Villa, Main Road, Fernhill, adjoining Mr A. L. Elphinstone; every convenience. Mr L. Crofton, Tarrawanna”.17 This almost certainly refers to Seacroft although there is no solid evidence. As stated above, Elphinstone purchased Lots 18 and 19, which does indeed adjoin lots 20 and 21 on which Seacroft is built (interestingly, Alexander Leckie Elphinstone was a prominent architect, though there is no evidence he had anything to do with Seacroft). South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus issue Friday January 17th, 1919 – “To let, at Fernhill, a Villa “Seacroft” every convenience. Apply, L. Crofton, Tarrawanna”. This is the first instance of the word Seacroft being used. Whether this is an amalgamation of Sea and Crofton is unclear, but whatever happened between 1915 and 1919 is unknown.

Unfortunately, the first documentation of Seacroft being inhabited is in 1934, so the events between 1919 and 1934 are also unknown.

The Collier Family 

Son of William Collier and Mary Anne Collier, Joseph James Collier snr was born in 1863 in Newsham, Northumberland, England. After migrating to the Fernhill Estate in 1907, he started work as a miner. Their house was on 17 Douglas Road and can still be seen today. In 1916 he joined the 16th reinforcement, 2nd battalion and fought in WW1. He was sent to Sunray trench in 1917 and was awarded a military medal for running messages “with absolute disregard for his own personal safety”.

Joseph returned home unscathed in 1919 and resumed work as a miner, now residing at 8 Broker Street, Tarrawanna (a miner’s cottage).21 In 1923 he married Mary Kathleen Crofton (the daughter of Lawrence Crofton) in Moss Vale and they moved into their Tarrawanna home. It is evident that the Crofton family (excluding William and Mary Anne) moved to “459 Main Road, Fernhill” after Joseph Collier put up an advertisement for a 1930 Whippett automobile. Interestingly, in 1935, Joseph brought in an elderly fellow miner, Harry Roebuck, to live with them in Seacroft until he passed away on May 10th 1946.

On Saturday July 6th, 1946, the Colliers’ daughter Winifred married Michael McGoldrick and celebrations were hosted at Seacroft, after which Michael moves in.25 Unfortunately, Joseph Collier was so ill he was unable to walk his daughter down the aisle, and on December 26th, 1946, he passed away at Wollongong Hospital. On September 26th, 1947, the South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus declares “For Sale, one block of land 50 x 150 (feet) Fern Hill. Apply M. T. McGoldrick”, referring to the block of land north of Seacroft. This was later (exact year uncertain) loaned by Harry Henson (of Henson’s Buses) and a nursery is established.

In 1952, a fifth birthday party was thrown for Josephine McGoldrick, daughter of Winifred and Michael29 and in 1954, Patricia Collier (the other daughter of Joseph and Mary Kathleen Collier) moves back for a number of years. A few years later the McGoldricks’ move to Bega, then King’s Cross and so too does Patricia depart, leaving just Mary Kathleen Collier and Joseph Collier junior living in Seacroft. In 1959, the garage is added and around 1979 Mary Kathleen Collier moves out. She passes away in Fairy Meadow in 1984. Now only Joseph James Collier junior lives at Seacroft, with no indication (in electoral rolls) that anybody else lived there with him.

Signalman's Cottage Battery Point - Restauration Australia Season 4 Episode 4

Host Anthony Burke meets retired couple David and Mandy who take on the transformation of a hugely significant historic cottage in Hobart, Tasmania.

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A couple of images of colonial sandstone and timber fretwork held promise for this episode about the former signalman's cottage at 2 Battery Square, Battery Point. Everything at Battery Point sells for a million or two, of five on the waterfront. This place doesn't seem to have been on the market for a while, so presumably the long term owners are doing an upgrade.

We even get shown some flaking render and serious timber damage that cries out for a careful repair.

It soon transpires that restoration is even a greater misnomer this time round, since the first thing they do is demolish a sizable part of the house to make way for a big modern architecturing extension. Sort of like the big glassed family room at the back of the terrace house, but because the cottage predates the subdivision its back is to the street, and the front verandahs, instead of commanding expansive views across the harbour, it looks onto the back fence of some bland '30s flats. As a consequence, conservation of the setting and significant views has long been unachievable. Inward-looking architecture prevails over respect for the public face of a historic building. 

Burke is gaslighting the cottage, proclaiming the "heritage restrictions are mountainous" and it has "a heft of heritage constraints". It's as if he is gunning for the owners to defeat these heritage zealots. Blimey, does he not understand what heritage is for - and that if not for the mountainous restrictions, the cottage would have been demolished long ago for another of the bland blocks of flats that surround it. The original cottage remains structurally intact only "as per the heritage requirements". Didn't the owners actually want to preserve their historic cottage, or would they have preferred to demolish the lot and build some shiny new thing from scratch. 

The architects didn't seem to see heritage as much as a negative as the show's host did. As Heritage Tasmania explained in their feature article on the building's "sensitive and generous addition":

They worked with the heritage authorities to understand what was of low or no significance that could be removed, and to develop a number of principles to guide the approach of the new work, Beyond removing intrusive elements introduced in the 1980s, the principles defined that the new work should be subservient, lower in height and sympathetic and interpretive in scale and form. As the main façade faced the waterfront, it was agreed that the street end should read as the backyard....Inspired by colonial drawings of the area, the new additions reference the outbuildings that historically occupied the site...and the addition of the chimney references the memory of historic kitchens out the back

Mandy is quite perturbed because she can't make the roof higher to get the tall ceilings she wants so desperately. and then they have trouble lowering the floor level because the old building has no foundations., but they put in a concrete beam and raft structure, that looks like it involved digging out a fair bit potentially removing 160 years of archaeology. 

the architects

the foundations

the archaeology?

It's only the fancy minimalist extension that gets the good PR. 'The Hobart Magazine' tells us that Fred Ward and Cath Hall from 1+2 Architecture had to work within heritage conservation requirements, which meant "thinking of innovative solutions that often weren’t considered with new-build projects...The challenge was to offer a contemporary approach with a design sensitive to the cottage’s layers of history...” The implication here is that the usual approach is to ignore sensitive design or even make it purposely insensitive.

It even won the Australian Institute of Architecture's peoples' choice awards because of "A clear yet complementary relationship between old and new has been sought. Playful, abstract reference is made to fragmented historic forms, materials, and memory of the archaic function of the site."

At least Delperro and Clement (the builders - only 'builder Bruce' gets a name check in the show) got some handy free advertising on Google Streetview.

But what happened to that nice bit of Edwardian looking timberwork on the back verandah?

It might be the the 1956 of 1980s addition (fortunately the Tasmanian Archives make the building approvals accessible).

If the building is 1850s as claimed, how come the machine-made bricks in stringer bond - looks like a 20th century cavity wall. Elsewhere we can read that "Remnant walls from the original cottage remain within the core of the house which has seen a series of modifications and renovations and extensions between the 1850s and 1906, in 1985 and most recently in 2020." So the brickwork might be 1906 - still fairly early for cavity brick wall. The four red brick chimneys are also 1906.

Burke tells us that the "pick facing" of the stonework is typically Georgian. I wouldn't have thought Georgian really captures the style or appearance of the house, and certainly is not especially associated with pick dressed stonework, that could be of any period. Heritage Tasmania clears up the dating sequence: 

...the original stone section of the building was built in 1853 to house the signalman. Over the years, the stone building has been heavily modified. In the 1870s, a new Georgian-style entry was added to the western side of the building; in 1906 a large brick extension was added to the east  and a Victorian-style verandah was introduced; and in the 1980s further additions were incorporated

We are not party to the details of the building's history, but it can be surmised from the above, and from the glimpses of various bits of fabric. The shingle roof is partly in place. This appears to be exposed above the former front entrance hall. 

The thick internal wall Burke points out is probably off this hall and marks the original east elevation, so the 1853 part probably comprises only the two western bedrooms.

At least some of the stonework is cleaned back and retained in the new bathroom. This would have been the south wall of the 1853 building.

There is not really much evidence of a 'Georgian style' entrance, although there is some early stonework that conservation stonemason Warwick Young has to deal with. render over the decaying stone has trapped moisture, so his job is to cut out the old and match new facing slabs. He at least appreciates the value of a well built stone house, and puts down the problems to the fact that "it just needs some maintenance". This is probably true of the timberwork too, although Bruce the builder just pulls out the Huon pine balustrade timbers and runs through with the circular saw to see what the timber is, then declares them unusable, although careful conservation work would almost certainly have been able to save almost all the tiber. He plans to but some stirrups under the rotted posts and disguise them with some capping, rather tan do a more conservation-minded splice would be more in keeping with the 'like for like' and 'do as much as necessary and as little as possible' philosophy of the Burra Charter.

Apparently '...meticulously searching through records, archives and plans of the building' results in a 'shed out the back' design for the extension. From Rex Cox at the Maritime Museum, and Brendan Lennard - Senior Cultural Heritage Officer with the City of Hobart, we learn about the semaphore signals, the gun batteries and the nearby magazine tunnels, which leads to a 4 1/2 tonne reinforced concrete chimney with inset grooves mimicking the semaphore mast, evidently saying 'bushrangers are here' - although this sounds like one of those chinese character tattoos that says 'wanton soup'

The signalman's cottage was part of a semaphore network  which passed messages between Hobart's Ports, and could send a message to across to Port Arthur in 15 minutes. 

the signalman's view