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Restoration Australia Season 8 Episode 5
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00:04Australia's back roads are littered with once vital buildings that played their part in our
00:09nation's development. But eventually, for many, that development and progress made them redundant.
00:15The locks went on, the boards went up, the cobwebs gathered and the crumbling commenced. If you don't
00:20use them, you'll lose them. But can one little outback engine room of a building that helped
00:26build some of our greatest enterprises and most vibrant communities find a new life as a country home?
00:38I'm Anthony Burke, a professor of architecture, passionate about buildings of the past,
00:44this is incredibly impressive, and what they can tell us about better ways to live in the future.
00:50This is very confronting. It's a ruin. It is. Join me as I travel the country,
00:54meaning homeowners embarking on the challenge of a lifetime, restoring homes from the 1800s to the
01:02swinging 60s, looking to balance our rich cultural heritage with life in modern Australia.
01:17Sydney's Narrabeen Lagoon and its chirpy, wildlife-rich bushland perimeter is a local
01:23oasis for Alison Baker and Christian McGowan. Come on. For the Northern Beaches couple,
01:30it's a natural neighbourhood gem that speaks to their love of the wild outdoors. When they're
01:36city-bound with work and family obligations, it scratches an itch. Ah, gorgeous. Look at that.
01:43But any chance they get, they break for a long country road in search of a perfect camping spot.
01:50So what do you think? Yeah, looks good. Looks all right. Better leave. I'll be okay.
01:55In fact, for two city dwellers, it's fair to say they've got an unusually dedicated relationship
02:01with country Australia, for Christian in particular.
02:09For the past 25 years, he's volunteered for the rural fire service. He shot this famous vision from his
02:16fire truck, ploughing through the catastrophic black summer bushfires.
02:20I shot the footage as we went through. The guys posted it on their Facebook page or Twitter.
02:25So we're driving back and then we started noticing straight away, it's like getting,
02:29you know, it was up to, I think, a million hits that night.
02:32I actually hadn't realised quite how dangerous it was until I saw the footage they'd shot.
02:37And then I was quite shocked. And I felt so guilty, because I'd been a bit moany,
02:41you know, because he's away so much. And I just sort of realised if you can't beat him,
02:47join him, really. So...
02:48In quick time, Alison found herself face to face with the perils of the bush,
02:54dispatched to help out in another extreme of country life, flood.
02:59It's such a challenge and adventure. It was amazing, amazing experience. And,
03:03you know, I kind of see now why, why you love it so much.
03:07So, given their experiences, you'd think it might make sense to maintain their city base
03:13and keep the country life to camping sorties and volunteer work. But no. Alison and Christian
03:19are going bush. Big time. Full time, in fact. With this.
03:27A cavernous, heavyweight, Depression-era pumping station outside Dungog in the Hunter Valley of New
03:34South Wales. We're just on a big trip through the outback. We're on our way back and saying,
03:40oh, this is really nice countryside. And I wonder how much property is around here. So we're literally
03:46driving along, got my phone out, had a look, and this place popped up. Alison and Christian were
03:52instantly engaged by this intriguing structure and decided to road test it the best way they knew how.
03:59They camped out, or rather in, the stark, cold industrial space.
04:04We slept in there overnight. It was just awful. It's kind of glamping, isn't it?
04:08It's not glamping. You've got four walls and a roof.
04:11It was full of like rusty old pipes and actually it was really spooky. It wasn't great, was it? But
04:18then
04:18in the morning it just, it just looked different. It just looked lovely and we could kind of see the
04:23possibilities. I loved it and I thought it was great. So, um, so we bought it. But then we go,
04:29oh, shit, what do we do with it now? I just wanted chickens, really. I only want chickens.
04:36Why do we buy a pumping station so I can have chickens? I thought you wanted goats.
04:39Yeah, apparently goats are quite smelly.
04:43The Wirragala pumping station sits dominantly on about 4,000 square metres of land,
04:49an acre on the old scale, re-roofed and modestly refurbed after a fire gutted it in 2009.
04:56Alison and Christian, partners in a media services company, bought it in 2022 for $525,000,
05:04the bordering stretch of giant pipeline not included.
05:09When you first see it, it is a shock. It is massive. It is the most, it's the biggest pipe
05:13you've ever seen.
05:14I think we'll probably tone it down somehow, but it doesn't worry me. And I think, you know,
05:21it is a part of the pumping station. It is a stunning building and it's got a lot of history
05:26to it.
05:27The people in Dongog are really friendly. It's just, just gorgeous. I love the town,
05:32really want to move out to the countryside and live out here.
05:35It's three pubs and a brewery and it's not a dying country town, which is really good.
05:41The pumping station is something of a local icon, an integral piece of local infrastructure
05:47nobody wanted to see crumble and fade away in retirement.
05:51So I guess to be able to restore it, it had to be somebody's home.
05:57I guess they're just waiting for somebody stupid enough to buy it and give that a go.
06:02How to restore a hundred-year-old brick pumping station.
06:06Yeah, I've got to watch more on YouTube.
06:11I'm not surprised Alison and Christian eventually happened upon
06:15Dongog and the old pumping station. It is after all one of the main routes to Barrington Tops,
06:20a breathtaking piece of high country that attracts
06:24porting families and serious campers alike. I am surprised that they took one look at an old,
06:32redundant and very particular industrial building and the miles of giant pipeline that it once used to
06:39serve and thought, dream country home. A DIY dream home at that. Because neither of them have any of the
06:47attendant trades or even any of the necessary experience to set them up for the giant tasks
06:55that they've given themselves. Oh boy.
07:01I've built bits and pieces before and small things.
07:04Lego sets. Mainly Lego.
07:07But it's good grounding, but it can't be that hard.
07:11And you're just going to look it up on the internet how to do it?
07:13You just follow instructions, follow the code and you're fine.
07:16Okay.
07:17Well, there's no doubt in my mind that we'll get it done and that it'll happen.
07:20And well, the sooner we can get chickens, the better.
07:24Yeah.
07:29Ah, the pumping station.
07:31That's a tough little nugget of a building. Not as pretty as I'd hoped.
07:35Good bones to work with, I guess.
07:41Alison, Christian.
07:42Hi.
07:42How are you going?
07:43There you are. My God, what have you got for yourselves here?
07:47I know. Welcome to Aragolla.
07:48Thank you very much. That's lovely.
07:50This is our 1930s original brick pumping station.
07:55Okay, okay. How many people can say they've got a pumping station, right?
07:58Yeah, probably not that many.
07:59Not that many.
08:01So this at the time was a critical piece of infrastructure in the area.
08:05We think it was decommissioned in the 1970s.
08:07Well, I'm glad you fell in love with it because I'm not there yet.
08:11But I'm getting there.
08:13I can see you've got some really nice features to work with though.
08:16The circular window up there, a really beautiful little pediment that you've got there.
08:19The brickwork is really nice.
08:20Yeah.
08:21But it is a piece of infrastructure.
08:23Yeah.
08:23It's nowhere near a house yet.
08:24I mean, it's an elaborate shed.
08:26Yes.
08:26You know, so I guess this is your bigger...
08:28A warehouse.
08:28A warehouse.
08:29So this really isn't a restoration so much as an adaptive reuse project.
08:33I just love that it's such a solid building and it's got such history as well, um, that we can
08:39make it ours, um, from what it is now, so yeah.
08:42The challenge will be how to, how to make this all look kind of luxurious and beautiful and a family
08:48home.
08:49Yeah.
08:49And keep the pipe.
08:50Yeah.
08:51So kind of blend it in a bit, but don't hide it.
08:53The pipe is a monster.
08:56Still chugging huge amounts of water to regional centres downstream and onto Newcastle, 80 or so k's away on the
09:02coast.
09:03It's all gravity bypassing the old redundant booster station, but it can't be ignored.
09:10It's part of the landscaping.
09:11I mean, we will probably plant bits of it out and with grasses and things and hide some of it,
09:16but it goes on for kilometres.
09:18So we're not going to hide it all.
09:19Yeah, exactly.
09:20The landscaping around here and how you create a curtilage that really presents that building,
09:25I think that's part of the design side here that you really want to keep in mind and be comfortable
09:30with up front.
09:31Yeah.
09:32You know, it's not an afterthought.
09:33It happens right now.
09:33So the inside supports the outside rather than the other way around.
09:37It's winter. It's cold. I'm in the wind. I want to have a look inside.
09:42Should we go inside and have a look?
09:43I thought you'd never ask.
09:44Thanks, Christian.
09:45Come on in.
09:46It might be a gruff old box of a building, but a heritage order means it pretty much has to
09:52stay that way.
09:53Certainly, it's hands off the facade.
09:56So welcome inside.
09:57Oh, look at this.
09:59It's like the ultimate men's shed, isn't it?
10:02It is at the moment, yeah.
10:03It's a big men's shed.
10:04What a great workspace.
10:06But this over-engineered workspace needs to become a comfortable home space.
10:12How to do that and still celebrate all the aggressive and distinctive pumping station energy.
10:18There's so much beautiful detail in the room that you can still work with.
10:22The industrial bones are very proud in here, which is great.
10:25I mean, that's exactly why you bought this place, right?
10:27Yeah.
10:27Yeah.
10:27The trusses are fantastic.
10:29They're really beautiful geometries to work with.
10:31The corbelling on the brick, for example, is great.
10:34You can see some of the marks where the old ceiling joists were.
10:38These kinds of things are really great design opportunities, I think.
10:41Yeah.
10:42Yeah.
10:42Yeah.
10:43So you've got some really strong, beautiful bones to work with.
10:46Yeah.
10:46The space itself, I mean, it's, I thought it would be a little bit bigger from the outside,
10:51to be honest, coming in.
10:53Yeah.
10:53Well, I guess it looks bigger without all the stuff in it, but yeah, it's quite a big space
10:57to work with.
10:58We've got the original plans of the building from the waterboard from the 1930s.
11:03In those original plans, we've discovered there's a basement as well.
11:07Oh, really?
11:07So, which none of the locals or no one else seems to know about, so.
11:11Yeah, we couldn't believe it when we saw it.
11:13We're looking at these plans and we're like, wait a minute, there's a basement.
11:15A secret basement.
11:16We think there's a secret basement.
11:18Yeah.
11:18So we're not sure what exactly is under there, or whether it's filled in, or bones under there,
11:25or who knows what.
11:25Oh, you've really got my attention now, though.
11:27That's such an interesting thing to try and explore.
11:29Yeah.
11:30I mean, yes, there's spatial opportunities for you, but I just want to know what's in it.
11:34Yeah.
11:34Yeah.
11:34I mean, so we, yeah, I mean, it could give us another room.
11:37Secret basement or no secret basement, Alison and Christian plan to maximise the known internal
11:43space by cleaving it in two. The ground floor will be configured into an open-plan living and
11:50dining area. There'll be a vast kitchen and a large enclosed family room. Then, above,
11:56a mezzanine floor will be home to a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom at one end, a study under
12:02the raked ceilings, and then, at the opposite end, Christian plans to punch through the wall
12:07and float a big tin box master bedroom out into thin air. Below, timber decking, new ground floor
12:15windows and access to a pool and entertainment area complete the picture. Materially and aesthetically,
12:21let's call that boxy second floor addition a bold move. There'll be no hiding from it,
12:27unless it turns out there is a secret basement.
12:31So this, though, is where the bedroom's going to pop out from this wall here. And I think this is
12:35a
12:36really difficult problem from a design point of view for you guys. I think it needs to be as minimal
12:42and as abstract and as lean as possible because you want to let all the detail to come from the
12:48existing building. It's a really interesting project because it sort of seems very simple
12:52at one level, but there are a few moments where you've got some very tricky design decisions to
12:57make that are going to make or break this. Christian appears pretty single-minded about his jutting
13:03steel box bedroom, but it might end up a bit of a sore thumb sticking out from this period industrial
13:09canvas. Still, they'll both need to be single-minded, tackling this project hands-on with next to
13:15no experience. What are you most stressed about? What are you most worried about? I think I hadn't
13:21expected that we'd be doing so much ourselves. It does, yeah, it's scary. It's, you know, sometimes I
13:27walk in and go, oh my gosh, it's just this big empty building. We've got to do so much to
13:30it. You know,
13:31I hadn't kind of, I hadn't really thought about that when we bought it. Yeah. Doesn't stress me out.
13:37I'm terrified. I'm completely terrified. Yeah, no, it doesn't really worry me. I think it can
13:44probably quickly spiral out if you're not planning ahead enough and not getting things done quickly
13:50enough or all big gaps of time which will end up costing money. Talking about expense, how much
13:58money are you going to spend on this project? So we're at 685 at the moment and we started at
14:04about
14:04500. So it's blown out a little bit, well, quite a bit, mainly because of steel and concrete. But
14:11yeah, 685 at the moment. If it does go over... Yep. Yes, that's my retirement plan. Sorry, when it does.
14:18OK, is that stressful? Can you handle that if it goes over a little? It could go over a bit,
14:23but,
14:23and it will be OK, but we don't want to go over too far. Well, how much, how long are
14:28you going to
14:28take to do this? Three years? You think three years. I want to try and be in, in some form,
14:38by the end of summer, so. Boy, that's a pretty big discrepancy there. Three years, six months. I mean,
14:46come on. A year, let's say a year. OK, so we'll settle on a year and a half. Well, look,
14:51I think
14:51you've got an amazing little project here. It's a fascinating project from a design point of view,
14:55because you've got some real curly ones to try and deal with here, despite the fact that you're
14:59doing it on your own. Yeah. I'm pointing now at you, Christian, which sort of adds complexity to the
15:05whole thing. But the idea of bringing back something like a pump house for a town like Dungog, who's going
15:11to
15:11see it every time they drive out of town, that's a heroic kind of task you're taking on. So, I'm
15:16very
15:16excited about this one. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, so are we. Yeah, be excited when it's done.
15:23Yeah. No, it's exciting. Yeah. You know, for me, what I don't want is that this becomes such an awful
15:30challenge that you hate it by the time you're in. It's clear we have two very different perspectives here.
15:38Christian seems focused, very can-do, and optimistic about it all. Alison seems worried,
15:44intimidated by it all, and has a slow and steady approach to the project. This place was meant to
15:50pump water, not to house tree changes. So, if Alison and Christian want to make a home of it,
15:56and that's a very big ask, they're going to need a clear, unified approach and a singular purpose.
16:20So, how does a novice learn as he goes pumping station saviour and rookie shed-to-home converter
16:28get underway on this most daunting of projects? How else? He gets to work on an entirely different
16:35house, and he starts from scratch. The Shepherd's Hut is our, will be, our temporary accommodation.
16:43Christians building a tiny house modelled on Shepherd's Huts, he and Alison have stayed in
16:48while visiting her native England. A little bit nicer accommodation with toilet and shower and
16:55heating and hot water and all that sort of thing. It will sit up on the top of the block,
17:01um, that we
17:02can stay in whilst we're continuing the build. It's no flat pack, join the dots, Alan Key kit home.
17:11Christian's building his Shepherd's Hut from UK plans and inspiration grabbed here and there.
17:17He's even curving the roof with laminated beams. It's all pretty technically tricky,
17:23and it's on wheels. We've painted them, although they've got muddy drag in it up here, but, um,
17:29it weighs a ton. So we'll, um, kind of pre-built the rest of the panels. A few windows,
17:34a little fireplace, um, goes in there, um, and yeah, stairs will come out this way and see the view.
17:41It'll be nicer to come to somewhere that's not full of tools and dust and crap around us.
17:48Christian reckons he's saving a bundle building the Shepherd's Hut himself,
17:52and hopes to land it for around $65,000. That's on top of the $700,000 or so for the
17:59pumping station
17:59makeover. The additional twist is that time spent on the little hilltop wagon is time not spent on the main
18:06event.
18:10And time spent sleuthing around a deep pumping station mystery is also distracting Christian
18:17from the substantive restoration and building work. No-one seems to know what's under here. I mean,
18:23we know there is something there because there's an old step, um, so it's an old step going down.
18:29So this whole area is supposed to be a basement. So it's like a huge mystery of is it there
18:34or is it not?
18:35But hopefully there's something under there. There could be skeletons and all sorts of stuff,
18:39but who knows what? Hopefully it's something big.
18:57His surgical concrete saw investigation might reveal a giant useful space hidden under the
19:04concrete slab, or it might just end up a giant waste of time.
19:11Plastic.
19:22Plastic and dirt. Here is just more concrete.
19:35So it looks like we've just made an expensive hole. Um, it's just got more concrete underneath,
19:41so who knows what that means. Um, do we keep going or not? I don't know. Um, might have to
19:49speak to Alison
19:50to see what she thinks. How much time and money do we spend wasting on doing this when I could
19:55be
19:55getting on doing something else? Hello. Hello. Hiya. Hiya. Alison's holding the fort back in Sydney,
20:05working as the mainstay in their media business and shuttling to Dungorg when time permits. Yeah.
20:11How thick is it? I don't know how thick the next bit of concrete is, but...
20:17Yeah. So I don't know what to do. I'm thinking about just covering it back in and leaving it for
20:22now.
20:23OK. That sounds good. Yeah.
20:33Alison tries to come up every kind of second week or something.
20:37For Christian, the opening phase of this enormous project is proving a slow and solitary endeavour.
20:44If Alice is not with me, it gets a bit lonely and it's a bit quieter. But as it becomes
20:48more
20:49comfortable, and that's part of the whole reason of building the shepherd's hut, um, then, you know,
20:54she'll come up a lot more. Beyond the long days on site, there are long nights carrying his end
20:59of their business from his campsite office. It's tiring, but it's not too bad. We usually stay here
21:06two or three nights a week. It's not that comfortable. It's OK. It's warm. You know,
21:11walk around in bare feet and socks and the toilet's kind of quite exposed. And, yeah, so it's not that
21:20comfortable. If Christian has any chance of keeping to his ambitious timetable, then he'll need to get
21:26a wriggle on. Otherwise, I suspect Alison's prediction of a drawn-out three-year slog is
21:32probably more accurate. It might even be longer.
21:47Finally, some breakthrough progress on the tough old shell of this hard-as-nails pumping station.
21:53And some support. Shane's a third-generation builder, and he's very respected, because this is such a
22:00special project, and everybody knows it in town. You know, he wanted to come on board and just give
22:05us some advice, and thank goodness. Like, we're not doing anything without him. So these are a lot
22:11harder than normal bricks? These are a lot harder than normal bricks, yeah. The kiln's been a lot hotter.
22:16Any other bricks that have this age, haven't been fired enough, would be all crumbly. And the mortar
22:22would have a lot more lime or clay in it. This one's got a lot of cement in it, so
22:25the bones are good.
22:27Local builder Shane's making himself available as special counsel, a casual sounding board for
22:34Christian. But when the assignment has structural implications, like today's drive to cut new window
22:40spaces in the high brick walls, then he'll take the leap. With old buildings like this,
22:46everything's an unknown. You just don't know what's under there until you start ripping things out.
23:03You divide them into three. Imperfect. Slightly imperfect. Very imperfect.
23:12The plan is to salvage as many of these original bricks as possible for repair work elsewhere in the
23:18building. We need 300 to fix the roof. Suddenly I'm a brick expert. When you're the least qualified
23:27worker on site, chances are you're going to get the least enjoyable assignment.
23:32This will go in there. No idea quite. Alison's drawn the short straw.
23:38Seriously thinking this is an impossible task. And I want my first brick.
23:48I just broke the brick.
23:53It's not quite what I expected. I honestly did think I'd be in an English country cottage
23:59with flowers in Oxfordshire. But you know, I married an Australian.
24:05Actually, I married a crazy Australian. Yeah, no, I haven't used one before. So, see how it goes.
24:13My British friends think I'm completely mad. I think they might be right. All my friends have
24:19got their nice handbags and things and my money is going on bricks. I've done five. I've got 295 left
24:26to
24:26go. And they're not even that well done. This is a terrible job.
24:39The new array of windows should really spark up the mood inside, flooding in natural light from the north.
24:48But this little porthole might steal some of the limelight. It's not budging.
25:02If Christian can extract it in one piece, the sweet round window crowning the front facade is
25:09off for a tidy up and a spanking new stained glass treatment.
25:14It's not too bad a condition.
25:27Oh, wow. That fire's pretty fiery. Yeah.
25:33For Alison, the job of fashioning a utilitarian rural service building into comfy, quirky country
25:40home comes in a wider frame. Mm, look at Milky Way. Amazing.
25:48This project is about finding a gentler rhythm of life and tapping a deeper sense of community.
25:56I might start looking at that tomorrow as well. Yeah.
25:58Her camping treks with Christian have taken Alison to and through countless country towns,
26:04but none captured her heart quite like little Dungog.
26:17So, as a new spring day breaks bright and sunny, Alison's escaping her brick cleaning duties and
26:23chasing something she'd really like to do on her way to becoming a local.
26:29Hi, Alison. Hi, Brian. How are you?
26:32Oh, I'm good. Thanks for dropping guy. Hi. I met this lovely gentleman called Brian,
26:36who runs the Dungog cinema, the theatre here. It actually began with open air screenings in 1912.
26:45Wow. It is quite, it's a stunning building. It's amazing. And it's so different to all the other
26:50buildings. Yeah. So it's all the historic buildings down the main road, but this is completely different to
26:54people. I'm happy to do anything, but it'd just be amazing if I could help out and just meet a
27:00few more people and help the community.
27:03Dungog's James Theatre was built in 1912, screening movies through the silent era. And not long after
27:11the advent of talkies, the original open air cinema was enclosed. That was around the time the pumping
27:17station was being built. This beautiful old movie veteran is the oldest continually operating cinema
27:24in the country. It's really well preserved, isn't it? The local council owns it, but Brian leads the
27:31volunteer group that keeps the lights on, the movies rolling and the popcorn popping.
27:36We're all volunteers and we put on the films for free. Yeah. Well, in terms of we don't get paid,
27:44but people pay to come to the films. Yeah, but we don't get paid. Yeah. Which is the only way
27:49you can
27:49put on films anymore. Yeah. And any profits that we make go back into the building to keep the building
27:55going. Alison's hoping her media experience might prove useful to the Friends of James Theatre.
28:01My background is television program acquisition. So I've bought television programs for a couple of
28:07broadcasters for the last 15 years or so. So it's not film acquisitions. It's slightly different,
28:13but it's still the same sort of world. So if there's any gap in your room in that area,
28:18I'd love to help out. Look, would you be interested in doing the film negotiations with the distributors,
28:27the film distributors? Oh, I'd love to do it.
28:29Uh, we would be very, very happy to have you on board. Great. I'd love to. And how many,
28:35and what kind of audiences do you get normally in terms of like demographics and, you know,
28:40kind of films? I've noticed you had family films outside and the posters. Look, our biggest audience
28:45is family films. Um, we're trying to engage the community to tell us what films they want. It's a,
28:53it's sort of like movies on demand. For many people, uh, this is a very special place. It's a community
29:01space. Um, and that's its strength. One of the, the quotes that I just love, um, was, uh, it's been
29:09the
29:09heart of Dungog since forever. Oh, really? Yeah. That's lovely. Oh, you should have that somewhere. Yeah.
29:17That should be the opening for every event, every movie.
29:29Back at the pumping station, it's become a clear contest of priorities, big versus tiny.
29:36So I know that boom there goes across here. That boom there goes there. And the other one goes back
29:42that way. The hefty steel framework that will underpin the second floor and the new extension
29:48has arrived on site and is being assembled and fitted by a specialist installation team.
29:54You can't put that in. Yeah. You can't put that in. But even with the acro, that, it'll hold it
29:58up.
29:59Yeah. But at least we can tie that into it. That's right. Yeah.
30:02Here's where all of Christian's measurements and calculations, checked and double-checked
30:07and dispatched to the fabricators, will finally be put to the test. Let's hope it all slots neatly
30:13into place. There's 13, 11, 12 in that corner there.
30:26I'll pass them up and you just hold them from the inside. These? Yeah.
30:29The wooden frames? Yeah. But up on the hill... It looks a bit heavy. It's just awkward.
30:37The timber framework for the Little Shepherd's Hut is also going up. Over there.
30:43It's a test. If we can do this, we can do a pumping station. If we can't do this,
30:47forget about the pumping station.
30:56Are you fastening this on first?
30:58No. I'll get them all up and then I'll fasten them together.
31:01OK. There's a lot of rain forecast for this week. We just can't get water in all the insulation. So
31:17it's got to go up today. In the heat. The wind. The cosy little period caravan was supposed to be
31:25finished well before the main project. But Christian, how are we going to make it watertight if there's
31:30no roof on it? We're not putting the roof on it, hey? Putting a tarp on it. Are we going
31:35to put tarp
31:35over the top of this? Yeah. OK. A comfortable retreat for Christian and Lux bait to attract
31:42Alison for longer, more productive periods on site. Let go? Yep. Woo!
31:50The timetable's not going according to plan, depending, of course, on whose plan you're following.
31:57Christian and I have probably about three discussions a week over the timelines, the schedules,
32:03when we're doing things, when we're due back here again. I'd like it to go a bit slower. I'd like
32:08it to
32:09do more things at the same time, like not devote so much time to this so fast that it is
32:15to the
32:16detriment of everything else. Christian will try and book stuff in really quickly. Then I'll say,
32:21well, let's slow down a bit. Why do we need to do it then? Let's move this to here or
32:25however it's
32:26going. And Christian will kind of agree, sort of agree. But then the next minute, I find I'm in the
32:31car heading up here. Well, we've got to get this done before the weather. Yeah. I think Christian's just,
32:37Christian's defeating me through stealth.
32:41But Christian's not the only stealthy character making a home on their acre of bush.
32:50A large, red-bellied black snake has taken up residence meters from the pumping station,
32:56and Alison's not happy. No. A highly venomous snake quite close to the house is not really my
33:03cup of tea. You don't get them in Manchester. Spiders and snakes, I'd say. I really wouldn't,
33:14don't want to share my living space with either of those two things.
33:21It was there a few minutes ago, but now it's kind of gone again. I think it's in a tree.
33:24So she's shaken the dungog grapevine and found snake catcher Mary, local school teacher and
33:31red-bellied wrangler and relocator. So he's there now. I don't mind him. Alison doesn't like him.
33:37What? It's a venomous snake. Like, literally, standing outside having my coffee, look out the
33:44door and see a big fat snake quite close to the house. It's not my... It's not going to do
33:48anything.
33:49Well, what if it comes in the house? Red-bellied black snakes are venomous,
33:54but pretty timid. Oh, there it is. It's gone. How are we going to get it out of the hole?
34:09Well, we'll just have to leave it. I mean, I could stand here and wait for it to come out
34:13again,
34:14but it's warm now and it's super quick. Yeah, okay. That's not more than one. Do they have eggs
34:20or anything or... Like, they're not. Like, would it have? They could have.
34:24That could be like a nest. Do they have nests? Yeah. Okay. God. Okay, great.
34:33Don't worry. It's not going to hurt you. Really? You'll be fine. Just keep your eye on the dog.
34:37The dog, yeah. Alison's just going to have to live with the realities of bush life
34:43and cope with another surprise. Looks like she and Christian are not the only couple on the block.
34:55It's the Australian bush. Of course you'd expect to find snakes at home throughout this verdant,
35:00wildlife-rich landscape. But what about this gargantuan serpentine monster?
35:06This is a beast, this thing. Well, it is, and it was a beast to build and a beast to
35:11run.
35:11I bet it was. And how long is it? 85 kilometres. 85 kilometres? 85. It's a long way.
35:18Enormous. Enormous. The Chichester trunk Gravity Main runs from its namesake source dam north of
35:25Dungog all the way to Newcastle in the east. Local historian Cameron Archer is the full bottle on it.
35:32It's been a great thing for the district and essential for Newcastle and the Lower Hunter.
35:37And Newcastle was expanding in the 1920s and 30s, so it had to happen. This is BHP,
35:42our iron and steel industry, and they needed water. Yeah. And they needed a lot of it.
35:49And most of the time, down came the rain, thundering into Chichester Dam. And gravity alone
35:55would convey millions upon millions of gallons of water to thirsty industries and communities.
36:01It's such an important catchment. Yeah. And the dam fills up every time it rains,
36:05and away you go. But sometimes it doesn't, so people get a bit agitated. Yeah.
36:10In drought times, when the dam got low, they needed to get more water through,
36:15so they had to build this booster station. OK.
36:19And so, for ÂŁ33,000, the local water authority built the Wirragulla booster station
36:26to propel a vital resource through good times and drier times.
36:30Anyone in a drought in Australia knows what it's like to think, well, is it going to rain again?
36:34What's going to happen next week? So, this was so important for thousands of people,
36:39their jobs and everything in Newcastle, and it gave them confidence. Yeah.
36:42Boosting the supply. The pipe remains a vital conduit, but upgrades and technological leaps
36:49made the Wirragulla station redundant. Abandoned, but not forgotten.
36:54Is there a sense of pride? I think so. They're very proud of the district's history,
36:59but to see building like this preserved and used, it's just fantastic.
37:02Well, that's very good to hear. It's reassuring. Great support for it. Great support.
37:05And everyone's looking forward to seeing it all happen. Yeah. Somehow, and at some stage,
37:11Alison and Christian hope to screen out or soften the impact of the giant pipe.
37:17Hi, Alison. Hey, Christian. Hi. How are you going? It's been a year since I've seen you.
37:22We've aged 10 years. On the inside, at least. Yeah.
37:26But there's no hiding Christian's floating, jutting bedroom box. The framework is up,
37:32and it's out there, loud and proud, but mainly loud. The box. The box. Yes.
37:39Oh, da-da-da-da. 12 months into their agreed 18-month schedule,
37:44it's the box that's sharpened as the space of contention. Christian's rusted on. Alison's not a fan.
37:52I think if it sticks out and it's too intrusive, I probably won't like it. But if we design it
37:59well
37:59enough in terms of the cladding and the covering, then I think, and all the different textures,
38:03I'll probably like it more. Yeah. A big factor will be the materials that we use.
38:07We've still undecided exactly what to clad it in internally, well, and externally.
38:13Um... We've managed to push the box in, so there's less of the box sticking out than there was.
38:17There has been a negotiation. I was going to say, it's a small victory.
38:20No, it was meant to be sticking out more than this first.
38:23No. It's always been there.
38:25I thought we compromised.
38:27No.
38:29It hasn't been.
38:31This is what we call a journey of discovery.
38:34Don't tell me that. So my little bit of advice in there would be only
38:38let the building do the talking. Don't try and speak louder than the space that you fell in love
38:44in the first place. Yeah. By adding all the bells and whistles and colour and lights and all that
38:48sort of stuff. Come back to first principles. What's the most important thing in here? While
38:52we're celebrating this industrial building that we bought, how do we do that with the minimal means
38:56possible? Yeah. Yeah.
39:07It's just groundwater that keeps on coming in and, I mean, it never comes up above the floor,
39:11but it's just very sloshy. If I get down there to dig anything out, it just keeps on sloshing.
39:16Looks like the pumping station could use a pumping station.
39:20I've got a basket in there that the pump's sitting in. It's extra quiet because it's hidden by all
39:24the water. Christian has been persisting with his excavation down into what he still hopes is a
39:31usable basement. He hasn't found it yet, but if there is a basement, it's far from usable as it is,
39:37flooded by recent rains and sending the water bubbling up through this hole in the floor.
39:43I did think the basement would be waterproof, but obviously not. So we're going to have to
39:47put some other walls in and waterproof it and seal it to make sure the water doesn't come in or
39:52it
39:52goes around underneath. The weather's been annoying me, but other than that, you know, still getting up
39:59and getting into it and keeping keen and keeping going and there's always something to do.
40:12Hiya. Hi. How are you? Good. Good to see you.
40:16Good, good. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. This is the frame? There it is.
40:19This is it. There is a bright spot. Yeah, it was a bit of an effort getting it out.
40:23I think it's fantastic. So we cleaned it all up. Christian cleaned it all up. Yeah.
40:28I cleaned it. You painted it. Excellent. Well, we need to go and choose some colours. Yep.
40:34The little round window frame plucked from high on the pumping station's facade
40:38is ready for its new stained glass heart. So that's a little fairy tale place.
40:44It is, isn't it? Alison and Christian have commissioned local
40:48lead light artist, Marion, to turn their humble little disc into a bright and cheery beacon.
40:54I love repurposing old glass. Yeah. Um, so I did pick a couple of colours,
41:00but if we want to look at others as well, we can. So this was, I just think one of
41:05the most beautiful,
41:06beautiful blues. Oh, I love that colour. And this was the other colour. Oh yeah, I love those.
41:13And then clear. Now they both come out of a building in Dungog. Right.
41:16So they're both a hundred year old glass. Yes. With the window, we hadn't quite realised until,
41:23I think it was once we put some lights and security lights and we were driving past one night
41:28and we saw that window lit up. And it's the first time we'd actually really appreciated it from the
41:33outside when we saw it lit up, which was amazing. And so I think that kind of started as well,
41:37our enthusiasm for really, you know, doing the right thing by that window. I think they're gorgeous.
41:44They're beautiful. Do you like this one, Christian? Yeah.
41:46Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
41:47The really lovely thing about that is you would have really old glass from, from here. Yeah. Yeah.
41:52And it's about, I guess it's about the same age as the public station. Very similar.
41:55They're both from Dungog. They're from the same kind of era. So it, it all fits in. Yeah.
42:01So do you, do you want to go with those colours? Do you happy with that? Yeah, definitely.
42:04Yeah. No, I think that's really good.
42:05All right. So now I'll get some paper and we'll draw a template for that and do a bit of
42:11cuts.
42:12Dungog's got quite an amazing array of stained glass windows and lead light windows in the main street
42:17and also in a lot of the houses around the area. So to have old glass that I've been able
42:24to purchase or receive from people that they find, or if they're doing their own restorations
42:29and the glass they have is no longer needed, it's fantastic to be able to bring that back into old
42:34buildings like the pump station. If you listen, you might need just a small click.
42:41Did you get that? Yeah. Tiny. It's just starting the break.
42:45Yeah. It's the same age and it just feels more authentic and it feels like the right thing to do.
42:50And we hadn't thought about collard at first, but once we saw it, we were really enthusiastic about it
42:56and it just adds that little kind of our own touch to it.
43:06Emerging from a wet, cold winter, the pumping station is still a long way from guest ready.
43:12So this is going to be the main door here. Yeah.
43:14But that's fine for this visitor. So what do you think?
43:18Wow, it's amazing. Really? Yeah, it's bigger than I expected. It's huge.
43:23Daughter Bonnie isn't here to check in. She's here to check out firsthand the crazy project
43:29she's been following in far off England through photos and updates.
43:33And then there'll be a bathroom over here in front of this window up there. So that'll be the bathroom.
43:38To go from photos to seeing it in real life is incredible. I don't think you can really do this
43:44place justice in photos. I think you have to kind of be in it and
43:47see it and feel it and feel their excitement. But while the big house remains a work in messy
43:52progress, the little one is ready for its close up. Cute as a button and comfy to boot.
44:01Oh my God, it's amazing. Can you believe it?
44:05Yeah, no, it's turned out all right. It's good to, I guess, validate that we can build something and
44:11that, you know, I think particularly for Alison that she's confident now that we'll be able to do the
44:15house. So, which is good. So she's not worrying about that as much.
44:22Now I see it. I'm like, it makes complete sense. Like, yeah, all the work that you both have put
44:27in.
44:27Yeah. And how much, yeah, how much time and effort you guys have dedicated towards. I think it's amazing.
44:33Oh, that's lovely.
44:36I'm really proud. I think that, yeah, I think it's, yeah, completely insane. But I think it's
44:42really paid off. And to see them focus on their dreams, I think is the best part about getting to
44:48this age. To see them really invest into their future, I think is so, so lovely. I guess it would
44:53be devastating if it failed. Obviously, it's not like I've seen it. I just have full confidence that this is,
45:00yeah, going to be amazing.
45:15Well, I'm not going to call it a tug of war, but all the way along, there have been some
45:19pretty robust
45:20differences of opinion between Christian and Alison about how this bold reinterpretation of the pumping
45:27station should play. Right at the very beginning, they couldn't even agree on a time frame.
45:33Christian said six months, Alison said three years. Well, we've landed somewhere in the middle,
45:40and I wonder, now that they're ready to unveil the fruits of their hard work, whether they'll actually
45:46agree on the result.
46:11Hello, hello. Hello. Alison and Christian, how are you doing? Good. Good, how are you?
46:16From Pump House to Country Palace, yeah? Yeah. This is looking fantastic. Thank you.
46:21Yeah, we're getting there. Yeah. It's beautiful. We love it. The big question though is, are you still
46:25talking to each other? We've only just finished. Yes. We only finished, so about two days ago,
46:30we still weren't talking to each other, but we're fine now. You're back together again. Yes.
46:34Finished now, so yeah, talking again. I'm happy. I'm very glad to hear that. I mean, and it's not an
46:39easy
46:39building to work with. You had to kind of battle it out a little bit with the place. Yeah. It
46:43doesn't
46:44have easy solutions. It did fight us every step of the way though. It really did, didn't it? She did.
46:49Oh, it's a thief. Like, it's a she. Okay. Yeah, she fought us every step of the way.
46:53So have you reconciled your differences now? Are you on good terms with her? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
46:57She's happy. Yeah. It took a while, but she's happy. I really like that you haven't tried to hide what
47:02it was. Yeah. You've kind of, you've lent into that rather than lent away from it. You haven't covered
47:06it up and sort of prettied it up too much, even though it looks really neat. It still looks like
47:11a very utilitarian, you know, building, a pumping station. So you haven't lost that vibe. I can see
47:16the new front door though. Yep. Yeah, no, so the door's new, but it's, it's not the operational one.
47:21That's, that's the entrance. That's the front door where the roller door used to be. Yes.
47:24Yeah. Okay, that's looking great. The new steel door. Amazing front door. So a nice entry, but we kind of
47:29slip in around the side here. Yeah. Yeah. So can we have a little look inside? Yeah, sure.
47:33Have a look. Great. It's great that the pumping station facade is heritage protected and will remain
47:39an enduring reminder of the building's original industrial purpose. But like great theatre,
47:45behind the curtain, the magic awaits. Come on in.
47:55Look at this. What a surprise. This is absolutely phenomenal. Well done.
48:03Thank you. Completely different to what it was first time you can visit.
48:06It really is a kind of a very different expression in here. This is feeling very urban,
48:09very contemporary, really beautifully put together. I can tell already the balance of materials,
48:14the composition, the thinking, you know, it's not kind of just, let's just kind of get this old shed
48:19and give it a lick of paint. No. Yep. This is a real kind of, yeah, wonderful moment.
48:24It deserves something really special. Yeah. Yeah. Well, well done.
48:27I think we're in awe ourselves, aren't we? Yeah, yeah. We keep looking around going, wow.
48:30Come together. Yeah. All that new light that's coming in here. Yeah.
48:33I think that's a big part of the surprise when you come through here. Not a dark room. Yep.
48:37The view is amazing and the light makes it feel just really comfortable and welcoming, I think.
48:42Yeah. So much more light.
48:45These are all the original bricks, right? Yep. Alison's painted them all or limewashed them all.
48:50I had to do every brick individually because I didn't really want brush marks on the bricks. I
48:55had to do it. So every single brick in the whole place has been limewashed by me. So I know
49:00every brick
49:00in here. Right, right. You're quite proud of that, I can tell. I'm very proud. Wow. From begrudging brick
49:07cleaner to fanatical brick decorator, Alison's become something of a brick obsessive.
49:13But not anything like Christian's absolute fixation with that mystery basement.
49:19It is a little bit crypt-like. It is. When you see it like this, right?
49:24And what do you know, his perseverance has paid off. Well, we, yeah, we knew there was something there.
49:30What I didn't realise is there's a double slab in here. That's what it was. You got to the first
49:34one.
49:34Cut the first one. It's like, yeah. Nothing here. But then we cut again.
49:37And you kept going. Because the basement is, it's probably four, five times as big as that.
49:44All right. So you could have kept going. Could have kept going. Yeah. That was enough.
49:47This is enough. This is as much wine as you had. Yes. Yes.
49:51It's a little cramped and a bit, let's say rustic, but it's another acknowledgement of the pumping station's
49:58origin story. It's heart and soul. Pipes once pumped through here,
50:03doing their booster best for the major line outside. I'm going to get out of here.
50:08Come on up. Bring some wine with me. Bring some wine, yeah.
50:12That automated glass roof, or floor, depending on where you are,
50:17set Christian and Alison back 16 grand. Watch your head on the way up.
50:23OK. The challenge was always use the space, but don't lose the space.
50:29And the new second floor does that deftly, with two comfy bedrooms and a main bathroom,
50:36beyond one end of this clever void. What a fantastic view from up here, yeah?
50:41Yeah, it's great view from up here. You kind of get to see the whole place.
50:45And beyond the other controversy corner.
50:49So this is the master bedroom. Oh, one of the things I really like already is coming in through
50:55the metal facing there and under the beam. So we're really right up in the rafters and you get
51:00that, you're up close to the history, which I think is really great. Yeah. Yeah. It's nice to have
51:05the new build, but you also can see the old building poking through. So this is the little nest that
51:11you
51:12created in all the old stuff. This is the one moment of new stuff for yourselves. Yeah.
51:18We're inside the project's most argued over space. The box, the provocative jutting addition,
51:26poking through the old industrial fabric. Christian insisted, Alison resisted. And here it is,
51:32it's clad in weathered steel. I'm really happy with the choice of cladding and because it still ties
51:39in being the metal kind of look with the old building. We negotiated. We had to love the box,
51:45hate the box. And now we have an in the middle kind of box. Yeah. So yeah, now I like
51:50the box now.
51:51I've been worried about this addition from the get go. It could have been disastrous, but I'm relieved
51:57Christian's landed a new space that's pretty well delineated from the old. It's aggressive,
52:02but in a different way to the tough old station shell. It works. And of course, there is our old
52:08friend, the pipe. Look at that. Never too far away from that particular... No. Right. No.
52:18Fall on. Yeah. And the whole backyard out here. This is looking really quite accomplished.
52:23Feels like we're in a nice boutique hotel.
52:27Alison and Christian have started planting bottle brush and larger natives in an attempt to soften the
52:33outlook to the pipe. But it is indelible. There's no erasing it, no ignoring it. And frankly, when your
52:40new home has been such an integral part of it, why would you? So this pipe's here to stay. It's
52:46kind
52:46of a friend for life. It's been here for a long time. It's not going anywhere fast.
52:51The pipe aside, the most striking feature overall is the quality of the work. From the finish on the
52:57little wagon to the detail in the pumping station, this amateur project has landed some real polish.
53:05So you've moved from the Shepherd's Hut into the pumping station. What's going to happen to the
53:10Shepherd's Hut? It will probably, you know, rent it out or overflow for guests and things like that.
53:15Short-term holiday rentals for adventurous souls. I'm really proud of it. I think because until we did
53:21the Shepherd's Hut, I wasn't sure if we could do any of this. Right. So once we'd done the Shepherd's
53:25Hut,
53:25I was so proud of it. And I was like, okay, we've got a chance. We're in with a chance.
53:30Do you think knowing what you know now that you would do this, you would have taken on this project?
53:33If we started back there again and knew what we know now, we wouldn't have done it.
53:37Yeah. But lessons learned, if we knew what we knew now, you could do it again quicker.
53:44Because you know what you're doing. No ideas.
53:47When we first met you, Kristen, you said six months. That's how long this would take.
53:52Alison, I think you said three years. Yes, I was realistic.
53:55I see. And then we kind of went backwards and forwards and you settled on 18 months.
53:58Yep. So we've ended up actually with how long?
54:02Two years. Two years.
54:04But I was closer.
54:05Yeah, I hate to say it, Kristen, but Alison was closer.
54:07That's all I went.
54:09Let's talk about, though, then the money for the pump house.
54:12You said 685,000. It's a good number.
54:15We've ended up at around 900.
54:17Ooh, okay.
54:19Don't do the ooh.
54:21That's a little more than I had thought.
54:22Yes, it's a little more than we thought.
54:24Where did the extra come from?
54:25Well, I mean, building costs went up, but the steel and the concrete were a lot more than what
54:31we thought.
54:32And the landscaping.
54:33Yeah.
54:34You're done here for 900. You bought it for how much?
54:37Five, uh, 550.
54:39Call it five.
54:39All right, so we're at sort of like 1.4?
54:41Yep.
54:42For this?
54:42Yep.
54:43All of this?
54:44Yep.
54:44Yeah.
54:45I reckon that's pretty good.
54:45It's pretty good.
54:46Yeah. I actually can't believe we've made it look like this.
54:48That is quite special.
54:49It's an absolute, I think it is quite special.
54:51It's a remarkable story, and I'm glad of your naivety at the beginning of this, because
54:54you did this, and it's brilliant.
54:56So, well done.
54:58Thank you very much.
55:00Don't cry.
55:01I'm not going to cry.
55:01You're going to cry.
55:02Look.
55:03It's the sun.
55:03Oh, my goodness.
55:04I'm not crying.
55:06You've got something in your eye.
55:09You're making me cry.
55:10You're making me cry.
55:14You made a big grown man cry, Chris.
55:21You're making me cry.
55:25Hi, Alison.
55:26Hello.
55:27Come on in.
55:28Hi, Marianne.
55:29Wow.
55:30Hello.
55:30How fabulous.
55:33Yeah, yeah, so you cut the concrete to size, and then, yeah, drop the lid in.
55:38It took about eight of us to move it.
55:40Oh, really?
55:40It weighs a ton.
55:41Yeah.
55:41Yeah, please.
55:53Who'd have thought that an abandoned old box of pipes and secret subterranean spaces
55:58could come to find such beautiful new purpose?
56:02Well, Christian never doubted it.
56:03And Alison, she came to love the idea as well.
56:07It's been an incredible effort.
56:09So much focus and determination from a pair of pretty green do-it-yourselfers and some local help.
56:15But it is proof, if you needed it, that sometimes, with the will and away, pipe dreams can come true.
56:46Hopefully you will be happy.
56:49We'll be happy.
56:49On to the beach.
56:49Bye bye bye.
56:57Bye bye bye.
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