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Restoration Australia Season 8 Episode 6
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00:06Many of Australia's oldest homes have been altered and augmented over their
00:11long histories as new owners have added rooms and closed-in spaces for growing
00:16families and other practical needs. But often those changes and additions have
00:21been unsympathetic or downright ugly and sometimes those changes hide a hell of a
00:27lot of what's wrong with the original structure. So what happens when you buy a
00:32200-year-old farmhouse and unwrap a series of unsightly layers to reveal a
00:37historic heart that's a precarious, small and relatively plain structure that seems
00:44intent on falling down? Is a restoration even going to be worth it?
00:54I'm Anthony Berg, a professor of architecture, passionate about buildings of the past, this
01:00is incredibly impressive, and what they can tell us about better ways to live in the future.
01:06This is very confronting.
01:07It's a ruin. It is. Join me as I travel the country, meeting homeowners embarking on the
01:12challenge of a lifetime. Restoring homes from the 1800s to the swinging 60s. Looking to
01:20balance our rich cultural heritage with life in modern Australia.
01:40In a whisper-quiet saddling yard, in a whisper-quiet pocket of the New South Wales south coast,
01:47Kelly Dunn and her very good friend Archie are having a quiet conversation.
01:52Good boy. It's quite amazing to have such a big animal, you know, and you build up such
02:04a trust with them. Good boy.
02:06To be fair, Kelly does most of the talking, but Archie's replies are unmistakable. Fluent,
02:13faithful compliance. They adore each other, and it shows.
02:20Horses have pretty much always been my favourite thing, really, for as long as I can remember.
02:26They're big, huge, strong animals, but I find them very peaceful. And it doesn't really matter
02:33how much of a bad day I've had. I always feel better if I go and spend some time with
02:36the
02:36horses. It's no exaggeration to say Kelly has made horses her life. She turned her affinity
02:44with them and affection for them into a number of careers.
02:48As a jockey, I was riding in the Sydney tracks, had some winners at Randwick, Warwick Farm,
02:54yeah, quite a number of winners. I knew it was never going to be a long-term career, but
02:59I loved it while I did it. Kelly then joined the police force and became
03:05a mounted officer as Sydney hosted the world at the 2000 Olympics.
03:10There were so many highlights from anything from working under the New Year's Eve fireworks
03:14to doing all the football events and you get to go to a lot of sporting games, so it was
03:20a good job. I enjoyed it. Horses might just be the best thing to happen
03:24to Kelly, but one fateful day, they became the worst.
03:29It changed the course of everything really. I ended up having a really bad fall from a...it
03:35was a trial police horse. It wasn't actually a police horse, it was a new one that had come
03:39in for trial. I actually fractured my top four ribs, my collarbone, my left shoulder, completely
03:48shattered my shoulder blade and had several fractures through my thoracic spine. I've
03:54had years and years of ongoing surgeries from my spinal injuries and shoulder injuries.
04:00The injuries are lifelong. I have to manage it on a daily basis.
04:07Rebuilding her body and her confidence has been an arduous process, but incredibly it hasn't
04:13deterred her from another confronting and complicated and potentially painful rebuilding project.
04:21Bringing this 200-year-old teetering farmhouse on eight or so rolling hectares back from the brink.
04:30What I was looking for was land, land for the horses, land for me. I just love being the open
04:35space.
04:36When I came out here for the first time, I walked away and thought, there's no way I can take
04:41on this.
04:42But then I started looking into the history and yeah, I couldn't let it go. It's just peaceful, it's calm,
04:47you can
04:48feel the history in the place I think. Even though sort of everything's falling down, it's, it has a weird
04:56charm about it.
04:57Kelly bought the property known as Shannon View in 2024 for $810,000. It's just outside the coastal
05:06riverside town of Morooya, a four hour drive south of Sydney. But importantly, there's accommodation
05:13and some willing helpers nearby. Mum, Lindy and Dad Peter are 20 minutes away at Churros Head.
05:19I think it's a very clear hierarchical relationship.
05:23Yeah, she's the boss. She's at the top, she's the boss and we'll do what we're told.
05:27I can't keep up with either one of them. They're fit, they go at it, they get things done so
05:33I think
05:34it'll be great having them on board to help things. She'll need all the help she can muster.
05:41Kelly wants to be hands-on with this restoration, but her injuries will define what she can and can't do.
05:48I'm normally at work by around about eight o'clock. Plus, she works full-time as a primary school teacher
05:55and she's studying to complete her master's in psychology.
05:59Often by the time I'm home, it might be sort of 6, 6.30, have shower, have some dinner and
06:05then get
06:05into it and I really need like as many hours as I can just sitting and knuckle down and until
06:11I just
06:11literally can't keep my eyes open and get a bit of sleep and get up and go again the next
06:16day.
06:17So finding enough time for this daunting project is going to be a challenge and Shannon's View is going
06:22to need loads of time and love and attention. It was built by the first European settler in the
06:29Moroia area. It stood for two centuries but now it's barely standing. It's pretty decrepit. I love the
06:37house but it's pretty disgusting in the state that it is. Some of the ceilings are peeling off. It has
06:44huge cracks. You can't walk anywhere without being very careful of where you're putting your feet. I don't
06:52even know what's under the carpet. So it's pretty bad. It's pretty modest. Certainly no grand country
07:00pile but this homestead is a beloved landmark here and the local community will be watching Kelly's
07:06efforts very closely. I feel like as much as I've done in my life taking on the project of Shannon
07:14View
07:14is probably going to be the biggest thing I've ever tried to do.
07:26Oh boy. Heritage hiding amongst the ruins I think.
07:32Hi Kelly. Hello how are we? Oh very well. How are you doing? Good thank you. Welcome. Thank you very
07:38much.
07:38Lovely to meet you and lovely to meet your dream. It absolutely is. Yeah. What did you fall in love
07:45with if I'm... It got webs. I was going to say it looks like a bit of a mongrel at
07:50the moment. I know it's
07:51very old like 18, 20... 18, 29. 29. That's very old for us. So I can see that kind of
07:58part of it lurking behind
08:00this awful built-in veranda space. Yep. So how do you just kind of get past that and say yes
08:07this is
08:07the one for me? I don't really know. I actually tried to talk myself out of it many times just
08:14thinking I'm crazy. It's too big a project. Don't do it. And then I kept on coming back. So here
08:21I am.
08:21I don't know. I just I love it. I want to keep it. I want to save it. So I'm
08:25going to try and retain as
08:26much of the original as I can. The whole core will stay. The outside will will come off and
08:31then it will be rebuilt. Pretty much the same footprint. So it'll be a mission. It'll be hard.
08:35Yeah. Yeah. That's the goal. Okay. Well I can see the beautiful old pan tiles here. I can see the
08:41chimney falling over. A few things out here. That looks very precarious. Yeah. So I guess underneath
08:46all of this there's some structural stuff to be done. That's my assumption already. What's it like
08:50inside? It gets worse as we go. Come and have a look. I'd love to see what's going on.
08:57You'd expect over 200 years, respective owners might add, augment or restyle for extra space
09:03or out of personal taste. Hopefully, sympathetically, not in outright hostility.
09:11So this is the veranda area. Oh, this is nasty. It's not great, is it? Not great. No, I mean,
09:19all of this then gone. Yep. And it will come back to an old open style Georgian veranda. Nice. Okay.
09:25So all
09:25gone. Some heritage reinstatement to be done. That's this beautiful space out here. Yes.
09:31What about the disaster that's waiting in here? I can tell already.
09:35Right. So this is the main living area. It doesn't get much better in here, does it?
09:40Not really, no. Probably worse. It's a pretty modest footprint, really. You can really tell there's
09:46been a lot of lives through this space. Absolutely. This is the room. Like it all pretty much happened here.
09:51Yep. You came in, took your boots off and you ended up here. The fire was on. This over here
09:57though,
09:57this, this is what's got me a bit worried. A bit concerning. Yeah. This has fallen off already.
10:04And the more I, oh, the more I point, the more dangerous it gets. It's very damp. It feels damp.
10:09Yeah. Ouch. So have you done an inspection all around the walls then? Um, no. I'm very scared. And I'm
10:18standing on a very spongy floor here, which makes me think, oh, there's a lot of demo to probably be
10:25done
10:25now. Have you taken up the carpets? Uh, we've only taken them up in the corners. Um, and really,
10:33you can just see dirt and there's a lot of plywood under it. So it hasn't been taken up in
10:38the middle
10:38here. So it's going to be a little bit of an experiment when that all starts to come up. Can
10:43I ask
10:43the question another way? Do you know what you're in for? No. Do you have a sense? It's a little
10:48scary.
10:49It's a little scary. I get it. I get it. I mean, it's a pocket sized space, but it holds
10:54a multitude of
10:55dramas. And speaking of scary, these are the steepest stairs I think I've probably ever seen in my life.
11:00Look at that. And the most dangerous I'd suggest. Yeah, right. Absolutely. Yeah. Like it's a two
11:05to one, the riser to the going. It's more of a ladder than a staircase. And here's another
11:11challenge for Kelly. How to introduce a compliant staircase, a more graduated climb from the postage
11:18stamp of a living room. You need climbing gear to get up here. And hold on. Hold on. Yeah. Good
11:23advice.
11:25Up to the second floor of the original house. So because the ceilings are so low here, they
11:32can't be classified as bedrooms. So it'll be sort of storage attic spaces up here. Okay. Um, yeah.
11:39Yeah. So like, I mean, it's, it's usable, isn't it? But it's just not to code. That's right.
11:44One of the things I do really like is the view from out here. Yeah, the view's beautiful. It's part
11:49of what I fell in love with, I think. Absolutely. Looking out, it's breathtaking. Looking within,
11:55it's nerve wracking. Rising damp, crumbling bricks, spongy floors, an unlivable room above a cramped one,
12:03and a bunch of scary, ugly additions. So where to begin? Well, the add-ons get subtracted for a start,
12:11leaving that central, very simple, original 1820s stack. Kelly's solving her spongy floor issue with
12:18concrete, which she's told will also help stabilise the structure once crumbling bricks are replaced
12:25and rising damp conquered. A new compliant staircase will fit once a little of the upstairs floor is
12:32sacrificed for safer ascent. The attic storage area will get fresh paint and a new floor. Then it's Kelly
12:40Creature Comfort Time. Into the former footprint goes a bedroom with walk-in robe and ensuite bathroom.
12:47There's a mudroom. The original bathroom and entry will get a work over. A new kitchen goes in behind
12:54a repurposed living dining room. Then another bedroom with a little bathroom wedged in for good measure.
13:01At the front, a wide and welcoming open veranda. And on top, a sparkling new galvanised roof.
13:08So a colonial cubbyhole becomes something of a 21st century TARDIS. Amazing amenity for the space.
13:17How are you going to treat the old and the new? It's one of those classic questions I talk about
13:22a lot.
13:23Yeah. But in this instance, you don't want that kind of faux, you know, restoration or faux Georgian.
13:30You want something authentic. Which I feel like it's going to be really hard to get that balance. But
13:38hopefully with keeping as much of the original timbers, as much of the original doors,
13:44hopefully I'll be able to reuse some of those wooden windows, bringing the front veranda,
13:48opening it back up to what it used to be. There'll be as much of the old stuff in there
13:52as I can
13:53possibly use. Yeah, okay. So I know that you bought the property for 810,000. Yeah.
13:59How much are you going to spend on this? 500,000 is the goal. Half a million? Yep.
14:05Half a million, but we're not quite sure what the project really is yet. Good luck. Don't make me
14:11nervous. Good luck. You're kind of taking a bit of a, well, we'll see. I do have a lot of
14:17ideas,
14:18but it's, I don't want to make any final decisions until the house is gutted. Because I feel like if
14:23I make all the decisions now, there's going to be too many compromises. Whereas if I just hold off,
14:28do one step at a time, might be a bit of an easier process. Okay. So not exactly knowing what
14:34you're
14:34going to be doing. Yeah. How long is it going to take you? Look, I'll go with 12 months. That,
14:39that would be an ultimate goal. If it's not saved now, it will be on the ground within six months.
14:44Yeah.
14:44I mean, I feel that. It is literally falling apart as we speak. Yeah. You've got to act. Yeah. Yeah.
14:51If it's not done now, we'll literally be lost. Yeah. You've got to move. Kelly, it's a beautiful
14:55project. Actually, it's not a beautiful project. It's going to be a beautiful project. I'm sure you're
15:02going to save it. I just hope it matches up to that vision that's in your head of the thing
15:07you fell
15:07in love with. Look, definitely going to try. Hopefully I can do it some justice. Yeah. Yeah.
15:15Fingers crossed.
15:20While Kelly's heart is certainly in the right place, there's always a precarious balancing act
15:26with restoration. Take too much away and replace with shiny new materials and you lose the heritage
15:33charm that attracted you to the building in the first place. Finding that sweet spot can be hard.
15:38In this case, the ugly additions have fortunately protected the almost 200 year old Georgian era core.
15:46But getting the new elements of the restoration balanced with the old will be critical for the
15:52design and building team. Blending recycled materials with new takes real skill, but also a commitment to the
16:00original feel of the property. Otherwise you could just end up with another shiny Georgian themed mass
16:08production. And I don't think anybody, especially Kelly, wants that.
16:22For Shannon View's shaky, shoddy additions, it was going to be a case of what brought them
16:28tumbling down first. The very imminent, very pressing weight of time and the elements.
16:36Or a team of deft deconstructors who will take special care to peel away these ugly extensions
16:42and ensure the original core is upright at the end. Thankfully, they're here in the nick of time.
16:51Gravity plays a part in keeping things together. So there's a lot of beams resting on beams and
16:55so you've just got to be careful that something doesn't come down and go the wrong direction, I guess.
17:01For head deconstructive surgeon Mark, it's softly, softly, steady as she goes.
17:08Basically, we've got to suck in the sea, really. You don't have to know how they're constructed,
17:12so we'll just play it by ear and just take our time and, yeah, just be very careful.
17:21With all of Kelly's work and study obligations, it's impossible for her to be on site for each
17:26and every critical phase of this project. We're the much-loved, unpaid farm labourers.
17:33That's when Dad, Peter, steps in. It's being able to be here and Kelly go to work and she's not
17:39worried
17:40that things are going to get out of control because she's explained exactly what she wants done today,
17:44for example. Anything comes up, I can have those conversations with text in the story.
17:57It's funny. I thought that today I'll be standing here,
18:02really shaking every time they started to do something, but they're being really careful.
18:13The original building is built on stout and substantial granite footings. Still,
18:19the team proceeds cautiously, using the heavy equipment like a scalpel.
18:28Peter's ex-military, very senior. He's seen plenty of well-drilled, well-oiled operations,
18:34so praise from him is praise indeed.
18:41Certainly, it's going better than I expected. When you get big machinery around 200-year-old stuff,
18:49you never know what's going to happen. Mark's doing a phenomenally delicate job here
18:56with that machinery. I'm really impressed with that. So, he's taking all the care he can,
19:01but so far so good. Hi, darling. Hello, how are you going? We're going okay. It's gone really well
19:19so far. I'll show you. It's gone. It's gone, that's right. It's gone around. The house is still standing.
19:27Oh, wow. How exciting. It's been pretty amazing, isn't it?
19:43Looks amazing, Dean. What are we going to do with it? Can we keep it? Well, it's just floating in
19:51the
19:51breeze now. And we've got some serious rot in this joist. In this one here? Yeah, so it's got to
19:59be
19:59replaced. With the dust cleared, the demo has uncovered hidden layers, walls behind walls.
20:07I'm just amazed that this wall was under the previous wall. I feel like we just have to keep it.
20:14Are we going to be able to? I think there may be some cracking,
20:18but we've got enough to work with. And as Kelly and builder Dean figure out how to save the delicate,
20:25degraded timber, there's an added reason she's keen to make the most of what's here.
20:29Because this, to me, is beautiful. Yet another layer. Under old wallpaper, backing that plays
20:37directly to Kelly's own passions, horses and racing. A hidden collage of turf reporting and racing forms
20:44from the early 20th century. This is the one with a date on it. This is a cool one. 1915
20:52racing.
20:54Is it Wyong? One race, is it Wyong? Wyong. So that's pretty special to me. Yeah, nice.
21:00This one's actually from the 1915 Melbourne Cup, which I just think is amazing. I'd really like to keep
21:06this piece. And if I can't, if it won't go on the wall, I might frame that one because I
21:11think it'd be
21:12pretty cool to keep a couple in a frame. I just can't go over the fact that most of it
21:17is the sports
21:18section with a lot of the racing history, which being an ex-jockey, is right up my alley.
21:25Yeah, it's actually too far gone. You can see how much rot is in here. This is kind of all
21:31the
21:32unexpected that I was expecting, all the rot and the what can't be saved. I wasn't expecting to find
21:38anything beautiful that we can save under it. Exactly, yeah. Dean will attempt to preserve as
21:43much of the timber and the sports memorabilia as possible, as he dismantles this wall, then builds
21:49a new sympathetic but solid weight-bearing one to underpin the sagging upstairs floor. Kelly will try
21:56to incorporate the salvage materials elsewhere in the restoration. Two months on, it's winter. The icy grass
22:09is crunching underfoot. The horses are rugged against the chill. These south coast mornings are freezing.
22:21So the concrete pour goes in today. You can see the underfloor heating, zero degrees outside. I'm
22:28pretty happy to be having some warm flooring in here, so I think that'll be good. Stripped to its
22:35barest components, the original cottage looks like it could teeter over in the merest gust of winter wind.
22:42The new concrete floor is a structural imperative. Originally, I really wanted floorboards because
22:49obviously that's what they would have had, but every recommendation from the engineers came back with
22:55the heated concrete flooring will help to dry the bricks out over the years and maintain their
23:01structure. So the concrete decision was actually a structural one. It's better for the old bricks.
23:11How many hours do you think it'll take to do this? All day. Yeah, right, wow. Yeah, yeah.
23:24Peter and Kelly's mum, Lindy, are here for what is a key event in this rescue. I'm going to leave
23:30this
23:30one to the experts. It's going well. It's kind of getting exciting again now, so. Oh, it is, yeah.
23:40Yeah, I can't sort of believe it actually in lots of ways. No. Well, what fascinates me is that here
23:46I have
23:47something that started in 1829, and here we are with laser levels and all of these mod comms,
23:57which we can't do without, yet these guys did all of this just a bit of water in a glass
24:05and things
24:06like that to level it up. I find it amazing. They must have known something, because if they
24:11build something like that, this lasted 200 years. We've definitely got it easier, and I just
24:17can't help but be so impressed with the ingenuity, determination. It's just beautiful.
24:26Away from sight, Lindy and Peter have been helping Kelly compile a history of the cottage.
24:32They know the original owner, Irishman Francis Flanagan, was up against it, building his colonial
24:39dream home. But he did manage to pull some strings and muster some help.
24:43He had nine convicts assigned to me, so he had physical help. Yeah, he had labour.
24:48But, I mean, here he was. If I had nine convicts, I'd do a lot of things.
24:53Oh, you've only got one. So there you go. When do I get my ticket of leave?
24:59It's been 53 years. What was the sentence? Life, yeah, never to be released.
25:16He arrives in Sydney on the 2nd of June in 1827 on the Aurelia. Yeah, Aurelia.
25:27He wanted to become a farmer. Lindy and Peter's holiday house in nearby Turos Head has become a busy
25:34specialist research centre on the subject of Francis Flanagan, Irish tailor turned aspiring colonial farmer.
25:41There's a letter here to the land board. Oh, OK. What did they got to say?
25:46The land board, he's trying to go through the system, but he gets not back.
25:51He's obviously very literate.
25:52The powers that be persistently refused Flanagan's request for a land grant.
25:58Here you go, got it here. A reoccurring theme in his appeals was the unfair treatment of Irish settlers.
26:06Frustrated by a hostile bureaucracy, Flanagan went straight to the top.
26:10In a barrage of letters, he implored then-Governor Ralph Darling to grant him a parcel of farmable land.
26:17There is a classic comment in here on a note from the Secretary to Governor Darling who says that
26:25the Governor is of the opinion that Francis Flanagan is a, quote, pain in the arse, unquote.
26:32Who would have ever thought that they used that expression then?
26:37Well, he was persistent. Yeah, absolutely persistent. And of course, after several exchanges,
26:45he actually gets his land grant. He's not going to be mucked around by the bureaucracy.
26:49Well done. Yeah, well done, Francis.
26:52But it came at a cost. Flanagan's ailing wife and mother of his two children died in the long wait
26:59for
26:59a grant. And there was a caveat. If Flanagan wanted land, it had to be beyond what was described as
27:06the limits of settlement, basically uncharted territory.
27:11He actually had to go down south to look for this land and to actually choose it,
27:16because he was told he had to go to the furthest part of the land, the settlement really,
27:22and that was the Morooya River, north of the Morooya River. Well, he thought, right, I'll go that far.
27:27At least, I guess, he would be thinking it's rich and fertile because he was on the coast and it
27:33actually
27:34was a relatively good year, apparently, that year. It's a classic example of someone who really sticks
27:39to their guns. It seems to me, with his perseverance, his determination,
27:45his downright bloody-mindedness, that is quite appropriate that Kelly should buy the house.
27:50Yes, I think it is. I mean, it all fits, doesn't it?
27:52Her personality suits. It fits perfectly.
27:55Where would she get that from? Where would she get that from?
27:58I can't imagine. Must be new.
28:03Kelly's discovered a contemporary connection to Francis Flanagan.
28:07Well, initially, he started with 1,200 acres.
28:10Matthew Keating's, a local historian, whose great-great-grandfather worked at Shannon View
28:16as Flanagan quickly grew his holding. He built the house where it is on the hill.
28:21Then he added another 1,200, a bit over 1,200 acres to that. So, by the end of the
28:271830s,
28:28he was farming 2,500 acres, which would be a big farm now. He had 800 cows, 200 pigs,
28:36and 12 horses. And, you know, you can imagine to feed 800 cows, you would have had to clear a
28:41lot
28:41of pasture. To feed 200 pigs, you couldn't feed them on table scraps, so you would have been growing
28:46corn and barley and products like that. You know, you would have been working the land with draft
28:51horses, which meant that they had to be fed. A lot of land, yep.
28:54So it would have been a really significant enterprise.
28:59Morooya would eventually take shape in the mid to late 1800s, as the farming and fishing
29:05communities grew. Today, it's a lively riverside town and a popular regional holiday destination.
29:11Francis became a magistrate and was really quite a pillar of the community.
29:15Despite his profound influence here, Francis Flanagan's grave in the local cemetery is relatively
29:21modest. The headstone notes his second wife, Bridget, a convict, transported for stealing sheep.
29:28He died in 1863, and by that time, he was a very well-respected pioneer of the area.
29:35Yeah.
29:35He started a very strong Irish Catholic community here in Morooya. By that time, the population of
29:44Irish Catholics in the New South Wales colony was only about 25%. Here in Morooya, it was about 50%.
29:50Wow. And you know, that's all because of him.
30:00They're here, let's do it.
30:03All these years on, Francis Flanagan's simple little building is getting a new iron roof.
30:10I have been worried the whole time about, yes, replacing the old beautiful rusty roof,
30:16but as you can see, it's already gone, so I'm sort of over that phase.
30:20I can't wait to see that roof go on. So excited.
30:25Not without its challenges, though, working on the old timbers that have shifted and skewed over the years.
30:31It could be a nightmare like that. If the actual frames are running out, I've got to keep my sheets
30:36straight in the gutter line. If the frames are running out, they're going to want to twist and warp,
30:40and then it doesn't marry up at the other side and it could be fun.
30:44This is an aspect of the project that will radically change the nature of the place.
30:50But swapping out the rusty old patinaed roof and all the history it represents with shiny new tin
30:57is a must-do if Kelly is going to be able to harvest a potable and sustainable supply of fresh
31:03water.
31:04Yeah. No, we're running good now, so we will be able to creep it a little bit.
31:09We've seen how cold it gets down here. That thick layer of new insulation will be working hard
31:15in tandem with the new heated ground floor. Actually, it looks pretty cool. It's not too bright.
31:26This has been one of my biggest fears, that it just looks horrible on the old house,
31:31but I actually think it looks all right. I'm happy with it. I think we're doing well.
31:36The old rusted sheets will find new purpose, patching out buildings and boxing garden beds.
31:43This is a salvage, reuse and repurpose operation as much as possible.
31:55You want to see some of the characters still, don't you? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, like all that.
32:00You get the scratches and stuff. Yeah, well, I mean, they're so old.
32:03Yeah, like... Got to have history. You can get it.
32:06It's an effort to retain and re-harness the original building's DNA.
32:17It was all about all the bad things that I'd find when we started ripping it apart,
32:21but this is one of the best things that I've found.
32:24Originally, I wanted floorboards downstairs, because that's what would have been there.
32:29But I chose to have the concrete for the preservation of the walls and a few other reasons.
32:34But to then find these upstairs underneath the carpet, yeah, was an awesome find.
32:42So, yeah, it's really important to keep these.
32:45These beautiful old boards will go back where they came from.
32:49And with the new roof providing protection from the weather,
32:53some of that internal work can get cracking.
33:01Four months in, spring is in the air, so the perfect time to spring a visit.
33:06Hey, Kelly.
33:07But it turns out the surprises are all mine.
33:11Where's it all gone?
33:14My cost-saving strategy, knock half the house down.
33:17Oh, wow. I mean, you really kind of got stuck in, haven't you?
33:20Yes.
33:20I mean, the character of it has changed enormously with all that curtilage gone now.
33:23Nice new roof up there. That's got to feel very satisfying.
33:26The rusty roof was something that I loved about the property.
33:29Yeah, yeah.
33:29I didn't really want to change it.
33:31But now that it's on, I do love it.
33:33Yeah.
33:34It's not too bright, I don't think.
33:35It'll settle down pretty quickly, though.
33:37Yeah.
33:38The new chimney.
33:40Looks good.
33:40Doesn't it look good?
33:41And actually, at this stage of the build, I'm a little surprised to see it so well finished.
33:46I thought it'd still be kind of in process or, you know, but that's great to see.
33:50The crumbling bricks and mortar that were collapsing and setting
33:53Shannon View's chimney on a precarious lean have been replaced.
33:57And now it's as straight and steadfast as the newly supported walls of Francis Flanagan's
34:03little house.
34:05So you can see the metal angle braces that have gone in the whole way along.
34:10Yeah.
34:10This beam through here looks pretty serious.
34:12So some good hardware has gone in to stabilise the building is what it's looking like.
34:17The beam actually is sort of like it is now.
34:21It will be exposed, but it's got a hardwood piece that goes over the front.
34:24So that will match.
34:26So the stairs are going to be wood.
34:27Okay.
34:28So now we've got steel and concrete and heritage fabric.
34:32That's right.
34:32Okay.
34:33Interesting.
34:33So we're actually kind of setting up a really interesting sort of palette of the new being
34:37inserted inside the old.
34:38Yeah.
34:39Yeah.
34:39And how to kind of keep those two things reinforcing each other rather than competing with each other.
34:43That's right.
34:44That must be on your mind.
34:45I'm sure it is.
34:46Oh, it's tricky.
34:47Yeah.
34:47It's very tricky.
34:49Such a small space with so many materials.
34:52It's like a mixed media collage crammed into a tiny frame.
34:57It's going to be interesting to see how, or even if, Kelly can make it all work.
35:02Do you like the stairs?
35:03I like the stairs.
35:04Especially when that new, slightly larger staircase she's planning further crams the space.
35:09This is fantastic up here, isn't it?
35:11Like it's so much more space now that you've kind of cleaned it out and given it some more
35:15elbow room.
35:16Don't the floorboards look fantastic?
35:18They look beautiful.
35:19So that was what was under those horrendous layers of carpet that was up there before.
35:24Oh, this is going to be fantastic, this space up here.
35:27Okay.
35:27So now comes yet another challenging phase, the additions.
35:31How to add comfort and scale to the original house without gobbling up all its historical charm.
35:43In Moroia, a key member of the crack Shannon View Research Unit has uncovered a blockbuster story.
35:51These huge granite blocks.
35:53It places the town and the community, made possible in no small part by Francis Flanagan,
35:59at the heart of one of Australia's greatest engineering feats, the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
36:04Moroia certainly had a massive amount of granite.
36:08They'd already been quarrying for probably a hundred years before, but when they were planning
36:13the building of the Harbour Bridge, the engineer and the British contractors called on the Moroia
36:18quarry to do so.
36:19The quarries of Moroia, 170 miles away, were specially opened and equipped to supply stone for the
36:27approaches and the 20,000 cubic yards of granite required for the piers and the pylons.
36:34A big purpose-built village was established a few kilometres from Moroia to house the 250 or so
36:41stonemasons and their families involved in the giant quarrying exercise. It was called Granite Town.
36:48The neighbouring quarry was dedicated to one task, providing perfectly sized, beautifully prepared
36:55blocks for the bridge.
36:58The workers actually came from everywhere, 23 different nationalities, but predominantly Scots
37:04and Italians. And their precision was absolutely incredible. They cleaved out these giant pieces
37:11of stone and then honed them into exact size and each and every one of them had to be numbered
37:16and off they went to Sydney on their own ships.
37:19It was a huge bridge by numbers construction effort as each block found its designated spot on one of
37:27the bridge's imposing pylons.
37:30Blocks of stone were dressed and faced before shipment to Sydney, all ready to slip into their positions
37:37in the great structure.
37:38It was an enthralling spectacle for the Depression-era crowds in Sydney as this monumental structure inched
37:47across the harbour from south and north.
37:50It certainly played a crucial role in Moruya's history. And to think that that sort of granite's the same granite
37:57that's on the footings of Kelly's house, I think it's phenomenal. I guess I'll never look at the
38:02harbour bridge again without thinking about it. The giant pylons built from the quarries from here.
38:07And the house of course is very small compared to the harbour bridge, but it's a huge undertaking by Kelly.
38:13And certainly an important and interesting project, historical project for Moruya.
38:25At Shannon View, the fanning footprint of Kelly's extension has now become readily evident.
38:31A new concrete pad wraps around the original building and plenty of timber framework is up.
38:37But despite all the engineering work, the steel and the stabilising,
38:42the original structure is still presenting headaches.
38:45This wall was originally covered up. These bricks have never been exposed like this. So,
38:53you know, there was always something over them protecting them and now they're just, they're so brittle.
38:59Unstable cladding and plaster was stripped off the bricks in the early demolition phase.
39:04So these 200-year-old handmade bricks have been exposed to the elements for more than six months.
39:12My biggest fear with the wall is that I lose, well, the whole lot or even a part of it
39:19because
39:20the 200-year-old bricks is what makes this house. And it's the whole mission essentially is to save them.
39:28So the longer it's open, the longer it's exposed, the bigger the risk that I'm going to have to replace
39:34bricks or even a portion of it could fall down.
39:38Saving it means getting it solidly rendered, but a specialist tradie has been difficult to find.
39:44They are crumbling before our eyes. So we've had lots of issues trying to find a renderer who will actually
39:51do the job.
39:52We've had a couple, Kelly's found a couple and then they're pulled out. So, yes, there is a worry.
39:57And that's a big worry that these bricks might crumble too far before someone gets to fix them.
40:03We were very worried at the start for Kelly that she wouldn't be able to get the trades that she
40:09needed when she needed them.
40:10So there's been a nervousness and Kelly's had to live with this tension all the way through that in order
40:17to repair the damage of time and neglect, that we had to run the risk of the house hemorrhaging.
40:26So it's been nerve wracking and we've got to make sure that we move pretty quickly to get them rendered
40:35and stop the weather eating away at them.
40:38If I lose the bricks, essentially that's the 200-year-old house gone. So I'm trying to save it.
40:50Meanwhile, the work that can go on, goes on.
40:57Roofing the extension should at least keep some of the weather off the unstable bricks.
41:03I don't think that should be enough for us.
41:09Just flick it around, turn around. Just go around that.
41:13And there are other challenges to distract Kelly. Like, will the new larger staircase actually fit?
41:20I'm very nervous right now.
41:22We're going to go up.
41:23Up the tread.
41:26And we are on.
41:28Yep.
41:29It's longer and wider than the original, and it's slotting into a very confined space.
41:36Spot on. Well, let's leave it there.
41:40As you'd expect, the squares and angles of the new timber staircase are machined to precision.
41:46Problem is, the space it's going into is not.
41:52You can push that outside back.
41:55It is a fair bit out of square, isn't it?
41:57So you can see how out of square it is.
42:00That's what you get from an old heritage house.
42:04And the building, that side and that side are not the same length either, so it's like this.
42:09It was probably eyed back in the day, done with eye.
42:12Yeah, they're all drunk.
42:13Someone got a walkie eye.
42:14It just disappears.
42:16That was after half a carton of beer.
42:19Builder Dean has come to know the crooked foibles of Francis Flanagan's house very well.
42:25He's learned to think laterally, and of course, vertically and horizontally, to get this restoration to work.
42:32The whole stairs.
42:34We're thinking of releasing all these, Sam.
42:36Yep.
42:36And releasing the bugles and just kicking that wall over to skew the whole thing over.
42:42Yeah, that could work a bit.
42:49How are we looking on the inside?
42:51It's good.
42:52Inside's good.
43:00Because we've got, what, 10 mil in the corner, we go that way.
43:02There's another 10 in.
43:04What are we looking at there, Taryn?
43:06That seemed like it moved heaps.
43:08I wouldn't go any further.
43:12So we've moved it over about 30 mil to the wall, but the wall's still not straight.
43:18So it's causing some issues, but I think they're going to have to be afterwards solutions.
43:24So we'll get the stairs in, get them locked in place, and we'll go from there.
43:29It's the best we can do.
43:35Yeah, just somewhere there.
43:37Yep, right there.
43:39Awesome.
43:41Can I walk on it yet?
43:42Go for it.
43:43I'm going to bus him to do this.
43:45Actually, go upstairs.
43:49Yeah.
43:51I'm ready to move in now.
43:54Not so fast.
43:55Kelly and her team have made good progress in seven months, but there's still plenty to do within
44:01her 12-month time frame, and those precarious bricks remain exposed.
44:31It's a striking country, but it must have felt like another planet,
44:36when Francis Flanagan came here, forged his way through the bush, staked out his holding and
44:41built his basic, boxy, two-storey farmhouse.
44:45It was built to last, but I bet he'd be surprised that it stood for so long.
44:49And he'd be astounded that all these years later, someone's wandered along and said,
44:54I love this little place.
44:56I'm going to save it and give it a whole new life.
44:59I bet he'd be chuffed.
45:01But now that the restoration is finished, I wonder if Kelly is.
45:05I'm going to save it and I'm going to save it and I'm going to save it and I'm going
45:20to
45:20save it and I'm going to save it and I'm going to save it and I'm going to save it.
45:28Kelly!
45:29Hi Anthony, how are you going?
45:30You must feel like a guardian angel having sort of resurrected this thing
45:35from the ashes.
45:36It's come back from nowhere, hasn't it?
45:38How good does it look?
45:39I mean, I can't believe this is a 200-year-old building.
45:42Yep, fingers crossed it's going to stand for another 200 years now.
45:45After all this effort, I'm pretty happy with it.
45:48I'm very proud of how it's come up.
45:50You know, I think what you've got here is a beautiful sort of farmhouse country picture.
45:54Yeah.
45:54It speaks to its age in a very lovely kind of way.
45:58I do really like the fact that the front facade there, now you've opened up the veranda,
46:02it feels appropriate.
46:03Yeah, look that was my vision for it, definitely feel like it's home.
46:07Always sort of felt at home on the property, so now to have the house finished, yes, definitely
46:12feels like I'm home and starting to enjoy living here.
46:16I can start to relax a little bit now.
46:19The repurposing and recycling effort at Shannon View begins at the front door and
46:24Frances Flanagan's centuries-old original.
46:28Looks great.
46:29Yeah, but unfortunately it wasn't structurally sound enough to retain as the actual door.
46:34Yeah.
46:35So, yeah, the decision was made to turn it into the screen door so I could still retain it.
46:38You've got to keep it though.
46:39Yeah.
46:40Yeah, that's the main thing.
46:41Because we never used this door, we used that door.
46:43No, this was actually permanently closed.
46:46Right.
46:46It never actually opened, I think, because the house was so crooked.
46:48I'm not really sure.
46:49I mean, I love this veranda space.
46:52I think you're going to get heaps of use out of this.
46:54Definitely.
46:54And, you know, sunrise, sunset, cup of coffee, gin and tonic.
46:59You're going to be out here a lot.
47:00Yeah, definitely.
47:02Let's go inside.
47:04All right, welcome to the new lounge room.
47:07Oh, wow.
47:08A complete resurrection, wouldn't you say?
47:11Resurrection probably is a good word for it.
47:16The colonial dirt floor in this pocket-sized space got a 20th century layer of plywood and carpet
47:23and is now a 21st century pad of polished, heated concrete.
47:28I mean, normally I would not advocate for concrete in an old building like this one,
47:31but I think here you've solved so many issues that need to be solved through that one move.
47:36And it does look really good.
47:37It actually gives you a kind of a nice clean slate, if you like,
47:42to let all the other texture come forward.
47:44And it's level.
47:45God forbid.
47:48The bricks are phenomenal.
47:51It kind of happened because the renderer left a little bit for the brickie to do,
47:54and then when the brickie had finished, I'm like,
47:56just leave it like that. I'm like, what do you mean? I'm like, that looks awesome.
47:58That wall has been specially treated with a, it's a brick glue.
48:02Yep.
48:03That seals them all together, so.
48:05Are they now stable?
48:06Yes. And the mantle's from the old stables.
48:10I can see over here too, you've got the old wallpaper, is it, that you've put in a frame?
48:14Yeah, I originally wanted to sort of have some of the wallpaper back on the wall,
48:19but it was just too old, too fragile. That paper's got 1915 and 1912 on it, so it took a
48:26little bit of
48:28tricky work to get it together.
48:30Yeah, yeah. And that's particularly important for you too because of the horses, right?
48:33Yeah. That's right, because most of it was all the racing section. There's a few old articles,
48:38which are gold.
48:40They're very on brand.
48:41That's right. It's perfect.
48:42That's destiny speaking to it. Through the walls, quite literally.
48:46Again, the original doors are on show, but in all their raw glory,
48:51hanging from their hand-forged hinges and leather washers.
48:55Their new washers, I had to hand cut them, measured from the 200-year-old washers,
49:01which were just so paper thick. Was that one of those insane moments where you're like,
49:04what am I doing? I mean, I'm actually cutting a leather washer.
49:07Yeah, and I actually didn't think it'd work until we re-hung the doors, and it was like, wow.
49:12Yeah, it works. Yeah, beautiful.
49:15All that wriggling, persuading, nudging and pleading finally paid off with the spanking new,
49:21more climber-friendly staircase. You fixed this? The renderer managed to kind of fix that gap
49:26that was there? Yeah, he did a great job working on that.
49:30Oh, this feels almost comfortable.
49:33Safe. A little bit different than the last set.
49:36Yeah, a little bit. This is a huge transformation up here, isn't it?
49:40Yeah, it looks amazing.
49:45Kelly's worked wonders with the old cluttered attic space of Flanagan's original cottage.
49:51Because you had like a closet over there, you had like one sort of funky room over here,
49:55another one over there. It was all kind of mixed up, wasn't it?
49:58Lunky room, I like that.
50:01Yeah, well, it's been opened up, with the walls coming down to a mid-wall.
50:05Yep. It's a generous room, actually, for the kind of house that you've got here.
50:09It feels nice and elbow-y. This is such a beautiful timber floor. The original
50:13board's being kind of polished and brought back up. It's such a great colour.
50:16Yeah, and there's actually so many colours in them. I think it's part of what makes it look
50:20so good. Yeah, I love this. I mean, everything in here is starting to feel like it's plum,
50:25level, more or less. Relatively. Relatively. I suppose you don't want to kind of get it too
50:29plum and too level because that takes all the character out of the place.
50:32I don't think it was ever going to be too plum because it was governed by the big brick walls
50:36and the rendering. None of that's straight. Yeah. You've got to keep the spirit of the house,
50:41yeah? That's right. Yeah.
50:43Of course, the upstairs-downstairs of the simple 1829 house now forms the core of Kelly's extended
50:51home. All the comforts fanning into the footprint of the demolished veranda and ad hoc add-ons now
50:57far more comfy and coherent. A simple but neatly appointed kitchen, a guest bedroom, an ensuite
51:04bathroom, a mud room for when Kelly's mucked out the stables and is making for the snazzy new bathroom
51:11off the main bedroom. I suppose the most beautiful thing about this particular room is from here you
51:18can see the paddock where the horses are. Yeah, that's probably one of my favourite parts of the
51:23whole thing so in the mornings when I wake up they're standing right there at the gate waiting for breakfast.
51:29It's a delightful array of new spaces that acknowledge the cornerstone structure,
51:34celebrating the original brick walls and segwaying across original timbers. Kelly's respected and
51:42protected the authenticity of Shannon View but she's made it her own.
51:48You've been through some pretty physically challenging periods in your life. I mean,
51:52does it ever occur to you that it was just a mad thing to do to go into a building
51:55project while you
51:56were actually in that physical state? Like it's a very brave thing to do. I think anyone that knows me
52:02knows that I take on mad things. Yeah. All too many at once. I was still going through rehabilitation and
52:11now,
52:11fingers crossed, I'm through all of the surgeries that I need. I'm held together with a lot of
52:16screws and bolts but I feel like I've got a few things in common with the house.
52:22Yeah, I can be in the saddle at sunrise and sip some cocktails at sunset.
52:28Who doesn't want that, right? That's right.
52:30Your mum and dad have been a huge part of this project along the ride with you. Yeah.
52:34Um, how's it been working with your mum and dad so closely? Look, they've been great and honestly,
52:39I wouldn't be here now this far along if it wasn't for them. Oh look, there were a few moments
52:45but we
52:46ironed them out. Yeah. You started off with a budget of $500,000. Yep. So where'd you end up?
52:55Um, pretty close to $600,000. $600,000. Okay. So 20% over. Too bad. Yeah, not too bad. Yeah.
53:02The
53:03overage, what do you put that down to? I had to put the extra steel in, the extra beam had
53:09to go in and
53:09so it was just kind of the on-flow effects. Yeah. And I remember you saying 12 months I think
53:16was your initial timeline. Where have we ended up? Bang on 12 months. 12 months, so you actually came
53:22in on time. Yep. Nearly to the day. I'm still a bit shocked. I definitely was very thankful for
53:30the amount of local trades that jumped on board and when I said to them something crazy like you
53:36need to do that next week they turned around and said sure we can do that for you. You think
53:39maybe
53:39it had something to do with your dad being in the military? Potentially. He drives a pretty tough
53:44tight ship. Tight ship. That's right. So what do you think Francis Flanagan would think about what
53:51you've done here? I think he's pretty happy with things. Yeah. That's my feeling. Funnily enough one
53:58of my friends suggested a seance to see if we could bring him back to actually get his thoughts on
54:02the
54:02matter. Not sure that we're going to pull that one off but it'll be interesting to hear what he had
54:09to
54:09say. Well if you do get in touch let us know. I'd be curious to know what he had to
54:13say as well.
54:15So I mean with all this again you know congratulations. It feels like you've given yourself
54:19a beautiful place to kind of finally have a rest. Yes. Finally take all this in this beautiful place
54:24that you've got for yourself. Yes. Surrounding yourself with the landscape, your horses, the lifestyle
54:30that you imagined and you've saved a beautiful little piece of Australian history which is a total
54:34bonus. So good on you for doing that. Thank you. It's pretty relaxing being here I must say. It's pretty
54:40good.
54:49Here comes an old car. Hello. Congratulations. Thank you. Oh it's an apple tree. It's for the horses.
54:58I thought the horses can benefit too. Are they the original bricks or not? Yeah.
55:02Yeah. 200 years old. Yes. Convict bricks. Yes.
55:09It's amazing that I get beautiful sunset and sunrises. Yeah because the colours, the light changes.
55:15Yeah. That is just a picture. Yeah.
55:19To everyone that's here tonight I'd like to say a big thank you. It has been amazing to have so
55:25much
55:25support within the community. And to Mum and Dad a very big thank you for all the help because I
55:30couldn't have done it without you guys. So a big cheers to the house. Cheers to you.
55:47Kelly's never been able to pin down precisely what it was about this tumble down building that first got
55:53her in. There was just something about it. That intuition is inexplicable but can also be powerful
56:01and goes a long way perhaps to explaining her beautiful relationship with her horses but also
56:07her deep conviction that this place should never crumble into oblivion. Shannon View needed a champion
56:13a champion and it found one in Kelly.
56:53I think one who managed to attempt to bathe the cause of her and her.
56:54I think in school has a champion, she was preventing other people from being able to
56:54have a passion for her and a lot. Does a lot of experience like it?
56:54I think to my friend and I grew up with a chosen man here and I really think one.
56:54Do you feel good? I have a friend and I didn't know what it is.
56:55You're just going to be able to work.
56:55I think you're a tough person.
56:56You're just going to get this place.
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