- 17 hours ago
Restoration Australia - Season 8 Episode 3 - Boorowa Convent
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:04For those chasing a bush getaway, the idealised image of country life is of a laid-back, simpler
00:11existence, commuting with nature and dialling back the stress. It might work out that way for
00:17some, but not if your plan is to take on a very stern and cavernous old building, a beloved icon
00:24at the heart of a tight-knit country town, and transform it from a place of worship and
00:30refuge into a cosy family home and fashionable function centre. It's sure to be life-changing,
00:37but in unexpected ways.
00:47I'm Anthony Burke, a professor of architecture, passionate about buildings of the past.
00:52This is incredibly impressive.
00:55And what they can tell us about better ways to live in the future.
00:59This is very confronting. It's a ruin. It is.
01:02Join me as I travel the country, meeting homeowners embarking on the challenge of a lifetime.
01:07It's in there!
01:08Restoring homes from the 1800s to the swinging 60s.
01:12Looking to balance our rich cultural heritage with life in modern Australia.
01:29Surrey Hills on the southern edge of Sydney's CBD is a busy network of narrow streets and laneways,
01:35cool cafes, snazzy bars and compact urban living.
01:40It can be gritty in parts and elegant in others. It is, after all, Sydney's fashion heartland.
01:48The rag trade has been buzzing here for more than a century and Rachel Hunt is right in the thick
01:54of it.
01:55We were leaning towards the greens, but the pinks, obviously hot pink's been selling really well.
02:00Yeah, I feel like this is nice. Yeah.
02:02Rachel is the fabric manager for a major Australian fashion brand.
02:06We've got these options.
02:09Pouring over swatches and bolts of high-end material, helping to put together standout seasonal style.
02:15It is a fun job. I get to travel, so we go to Europe to visit the mills and source
02:20fabrics.
02:21So, I've been to Italy and Paris and London and all over.
02:26So, I'm pretty lucky to be able to travel as part of my job.
02:30And I always use a lot of buttercream.
02:32When she's not shopping for a living, she's baking for a cause.
02:36There's some lovely charities that make cakes for sick kids,
02:40so I've started doing that, which is really fun.
02:44Rachel's a small-scale cake maker, often popping out cupcakes and delectable goodies
02:49for fundraisers and charitable events.
02:52Making anything look pretty at the end is, I think, the fun part.
02:57But inside this pocket-sized, relentlessly creative urban stylista is a country girl,
03:04dreaming of horses and farmyard creatures on a simple slice of rural peace and quiet.
03:10My vision was maybe 100 acres, just me out in the country with a cottage.
03:16I thought, I'll get a pony, maybe eventually some highland cows, because they look really cute.
03:22Some chickens, you know, have my own eggs, have a little country life.
03:26And now I've got a convent.
03:30She's got a what?
03:33Yep, you heard it right. A convent.
03:37The whole time it just felt totally normal to be buying a convent.
03:42Nothing about it felt odd. It just felt like, all right, this is just happening, that's it.
03:48Sorry, how did someone who buys very purposefully and particularly for a living set off to buy
03:54a farm with chook runs and horseback trails and end up buying an enormous nunnery in the middle of a
04:00town called Boorawa, 90 minutes north of Canberra.
04:04One day at work, one of my friends came up and said, I found the convent in Boorawa's for sale.
04:11And I said, what? What convent? What is that? And I brought mum and dad down and we had a
04:17look.
04:17We came down to Boorawa for the day and they loved it and eventually everyone else did too.
04:25It was very different to what I wanted, but I fell in love with more the history of it and
04:31what
04:31it can be. So yeah, I bought it in the end for $625,000. Now everyone's talked me into buying
04:39it.
04:40They have to actually be here and help me fix it.
04:44The can-do squad, family and friends has already been pressed into service, ripping up old carpets
04:50and paving the way for the changes she has in mind. Rachel wants to turn the old convent into
04:57a hybrid country home and function centre. Weddings, parties, anything. Not sure the nuns would approve,
05:04but the convent might. The adaptive reuse of old buildings is often the only way they can be rescued
05:10from a deteriorating spiral. Everyone that's been helping, they're all pretty handy. Like all my
05:16friends are creatives, so art directors, photographers, graphic designers, things like that. So they're
05:22helping with the pretty side of everything. But in terms of practical size, I've got a lot of
05:27uncles that are all handymen that are just, you know, good at general jobs. And for the big tasks,
05:33so electricity, plumbing, I've got actual trades. I'm really lucky. It's a gorgeous building and
05:40it's going to be amazing when I'm finished with it.
05:47Hi Rachel. Hi Anthony. How are you? Good. Welcome. Thank you very much. This is so impressive.
05:53It's big. Yeah, especially compared to me. It's giant for you. It's big for anybody. This is brilliant.
06:01So we're actually in the Catholic triangle really, aren't we? Yes. The convent, the school,
06:06and St Patrick's over there, which is beautiful. Yes, it's a lovely church. We have the same fence,
06:10so I'm thinking we were done around the same time. First stone laid in 1884 and then opened in 1885.
06:17So
06:18this was the Sisters of Mercy convent for St. Joseph's school. So the nuns lived here and taught
06:24at the school. So it's a really important building in the town. I think so. Yeah, hopefully I can do
06:29it justice. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. I think everyone's just excited that someone's finally
06:33taken it on and is going to look after it and bring it back to life. Brilliant. There's so many
06:39different
06:39styles going on in here too. It looks like it's had a, well, maybe a bit of a confused architectural
06:44history. Bits and pieces. It's a bit Victorian, a bit Gothic, and there's lots of faux finishes
06:50that sort of relate to the arts and crafts era. And the veranda that you see, the big brick veranda,
06:57was added in 1938. I'd love to knock the veranda down and put the old Victorian one back on,
07:03but that's not going to happen. Right. Budget-wise and heritage listing constraints. Okay.
07:10So we're not even in the front door, and budget constraints are already dramatically shaping
07:16what's doable and undoable. This enormous building looks like it could gobble up a huge bundle of
07:22money without even trying. It's massive. I know. Welcome. Ring-a-ding.
07:32Fantastic. The whole place feels so over-scaled, of course. Yes, it's huge in here.
07:37Um, very tall ceilings. Yeah. Sixteen foot, I think. We're already looking up to God. We are,
07:43yes. Yeah. When you imagine the tiny little nuns running around, it feels even bigger. It does,
07:48right? And when we took down all the wallpaper in here, we've realised that was where the original
07:53font was for holy water. Every house needs a font. It does, yes. Yes, praise be. As you might suspect,
08:02the scale and volume inside is dramatic from the get-go. This is amazing. Yeah. And when you've got
08:09well over a dozen rooms to account for, you can either number them or name them. This is what I'm
08:15calling my waratah room. Oh, nice. I'm lucky enough to have this gorgeous pattern still all intact
08:21in my ceiling. This is beautiful. Yeah, it is. Are you sure this is the original ceiling? It looks
08:28it a bit. It looks it, but I mean, those waratahs up there, it's very early. This is 1885. Yes.
08:34To
08:34have Australian flora, you know, in the plaster work to that level of detail and commitment. That
08:40sort of came in a bit more like federation about 20 years later. Right, yeah, yeah. But it's really
08:44beautiful. Yeah. So well done. Yeah. I'm just glad it's not falling down. The timber work is extensive
08:54and so is what's known as faux bois. It's a paint finish imitating wood and its grain. And it's
09:01everywhere. I feel like if they had it from the beginning, it would have been done in a much more
09:07careful way. Yeah. I'm so happy to get rid of it. It was obviously done for a reason. Yeah. Maybe
09:12to cover
09:13up all those disparate types of timbers and things that looked a bit hodgepodge. Yes. So it was a
09:18uniting type of finish. Yeah. So by getting rid of it, well, let's see. A quick beeline upstairs
09:25takes us through an array of eras. A bit of arts and crafts. Yep. A bit of everything. Something for
09:33everyone, that's for sure. To an array of what were originally large bedrooms cleaved into smaller
09:40sleeping spaces. So this is where the nuns slept, their quarters. Each room had a tiny
09:46little wardrobe built into the corner, but just their few possessions. But they got ripped out
09:52straight away. Right. Gone? Gone. Uh-huh. What was once an open veranda with sweeping district views
09:58was closed and commandeered for yet more nun space. At the moment, it's that mottled glass. Yep. But I
10:05would like it to be clear, because behind here looks over across Borro River. Okay. And out onto
10:12farmland. So it's quite a nice little view. So ideally, we want to be able to look out there.
10:17But the most striking view from up here on the second floor is available from the convent's
10:23quirkiest room. That's a magic view right there. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. Beautiful. You know,
10:29the weirdest room in the house has the best view. Yes, it does. That's beautiful. From on high,
10:34the remarkable little chapel. And from back down on the ground floor. Here's the party chapel.
10:43Wow. Oh my lord. It's all about the glorious ceiling and the space it crowns. This is incredible.
10:52Yeah. Hallelujah. No, really, this is this is so spectacular. What an amazing space to have. And
11:01it's your... It's all mine. My chapel. Yep. With all this dizzying headroom here, the challenge for
11:08Rachel will be to keep her head out of the clouds and her feet planted firmly on the ground. What's
11:14the
11:14most practical, possible and affordable way to turn this enormous building into a comfy, stylish home?
11:23Well, a big, unavoidable chore lies down below. The convent has subsidence in a key corner of its
11:30lunking footprint and that will mean excavation, lifting and underpinning. Sounds expensive.
11:37Inside, on the ground floor, Rachel's planning a kitchen makeover that will include a butler's pantry.
11:42There'll be some repurposing of spaces with a sitting room and a dining room out front and some
11:48internal wall reconfigurations that will help with flow, particularly through to the chapel, which
11:53will await its fate until stage two, somewhere down the track along with some other rooms down here.
12:01Upstairs, the warrant of bedrooms created to accommodate Buruwa's one-time nun boom will be
12:07decluttered into more substantial bedroom spaces. There'll be a study and a major revamp of the
12:12ablution areas into a modern bathroom, powder room and separate toilet. New windows will take advantage
12:19of the view from the sunroom. So, relatively modest ambitions for this grand structure, but who knows
12:26what tricks and tripwires lurk in its deepest, darkest spaces.
12:32This is quite an undertaking. Yeah. Two floors, eight rooms, two reception rooms, a kitchen,
12:41diner and one chapel. And one Rachel. And one Rachel. Okay. I'm pretty solid though.
12:47Yeah. I love getting in here and doing everything. It's great. Yeah. The other thing I guess is that
12:54you're relying a lot on the team. Yes. Yes. And how confident are we about your father,
12:59your brother-in-law, your brother-in-law, your friends, your mum? Everyone's loved being here so
13:05far. We've camped out. We've ripped out carpets. We've started, you know, filling and chipping off
13:10plaster and it's fun for everyone. And everyone's been excited to be a part of it so far. I think
13:17you're
13:17setting yourself up for a really interesting challenge. Yes. Because A, it's your home to a degree,
13:22but it's also a venue. Yes. Which brings with all sorts of different kind of issues and constraints
13:28and, you know, requirements, et cetera. Yeah. Have you thought much about that? Things like,
13:34you know, universal access, for example. Have you thought about things like fire code?
13:38At the moment, we're focusing on it just being a residence and with making sure that we allow
13:45time and space for those things once it potentially becomes a commercial property. Okay. So we have to think
13:52of this really in a few stages, don't we? Yes. And how long is it going to take for you
13:55to finish
13:56in your terms? Phase one. Definitely by April next year. That's my birthday. And that's when ideally
14:02I'd like to have the first big party down here. Okay. So we're sort of 10 months away. 10 months.
14:06Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What's your budget like? I've got about 200,000 to renovate it and fix it up.
14:13So 200,000. That's it. Phase one done. Phase one done. Then we'll regroup and see what needs to be
14:21done
14:21after that. Right. Well, I'm incredibly impressed with the, you know, the aspiration for the place
14:27and also the way that you've involved your family as the team. Yes. You know, I do think you want
14:32to
14:32get those commitments on paper. Get it signed. Yeah. Because it is enormous. That's my one real
14:37concern is, you know, it's just a lot of acreage. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I can't wait to see what
14:44you're going to do with it though. I can't wait to show you. Brilliant.
14:50There's no doubting Rachel's eye for style and detail. A successful career in the rag trade is
14:55testament to that. But helping to develop fashion ranges and stay ahead of trends and capture the
15:02latest look is one thing. Remodelling a giant 19th century country convent is another. You're not
15:10going to see this dour face on the cover of a glossy fashion mag. The budget is tiny. The country
15:16city
15:16divide is vast. This is a huge test and it's going to be fascinating to watch.
15:28It's the biggest time of the year, bar none, when the little town of Boorawa goes boom.
15:42What started out a couple of decades ago as a week-long festival of fleece is now jam-packed into
15:48a weekend Woolapalooza. A celebration of sheep called Woolfest. Irish Woolfest, actually, in a nod to
15:56Boorawa's foundational links. First Woolfest here in Boorawa. It was so much fun. It's such a good vibe.
16:03Everyone's so happy. There's music. Everyone's having a great time. It's like lots of country
16:08people out for the day just enjoying the town. It's so nice. The population just about doubles
16:16for the music and dancing and the country tucker. And when the parades of tractors
16:24and locals finally pass by, it's time for the headline act.
16:31OK, here they come. Boorawa's ovine answer to the running of the bulls.
16:37Who's going to win? The running of the sheep. The sheep are so fast. It's like blinking you with
16:43it. But it's been such a great day. There's so many great people from the community out.
16:48And it's just lovely to meet everyone. Everyone's so happy to have a yarn and tell you their stories.
16:52It's great. I love it. And among the crowds jamming the little town, plenty of locals keen to know
17:01what's going on with the other big show in town, the restoration of the convent.
17:06I will have it as a venue eventually, but I'm going to fix it up, make it all nice.
17:10So, yeah. How many rooms?
17:12Oh, it'll be about five when I finish because there's sort of seven or eight now,
17:17but they're all tiny little rooms because the nuns just had little...
17:22Would have been very cold in there. Cold and miserable, I reckon.
17:36It's not just Woolfest that can pull a crown. Hello. Hi, sweetheart. Thanks for coming.
17:44Rachel's mustered a bunch of family and friends to crack on with some of the knock-about jobs at
17:49the convent in what she hopes is a regular series of working bees. Hello. How are you going?
18:00For a bunch of relative amateurs, the bee gets buzzing pretty effectively.
18:05Good thing I'm not scared of heights. It's probably my first time up the ladder.
18:10Rachel's mum, Robyn, is designated wall sander. I love sanding and painting anything.
18:16It's not in any of us to waste time with a long-term project. We're keen to get it finished.
18:24Family friend Alison is chief door stripper. It's actually fun. It's interesting. And Rachel is
18:31very switched on with what she wants. And I trust every decision she makes. But as long as she needs
18:40us, we will come down. Rachel just lets us know. And we come down.
18:46There? All the way. All the way. Thank you.
18:51Alison's husband, Malcolm, Rachel's dad, Ian, and her tradie brother-in-law, Darren,
18:56are team staircase. Darren is very meticulous in his work and he also enjoys it. It's hard to keep
19:04him away from being down here. They're carefully dismantling the balusters so they can be re-engineered
19:12and re-installed. What we're going to do is retain the original cut through the centre here. These top and
19:19bottom sections cutting off here and here will be increased in length and chamfered to match the new
19:28height to be compliant with current standards. This crew looks pretty dedicated. It's such an
19:35asset to have helpful, reliable volunteers on what is such a daunting project, especially
19:41with that comparatively tiny budget. Rachel today is very much like Rachel as a five-year-old. When she
19:51was little, she wouldn't keep still. And now it's fully bloomed into this girl that does a lot of great
20:00stuff. She'll start something and finish it perfectly. I love her to bits. She's a beautiful girl.
20:07I'm just going to hurry right in.
20:14It might be a grand building from the outside, but inside, over time, this nunnery became a maze of
20:21cluttered, modest accommodation, quiet, contemplative corners and inexplicable cul-de-sacs. Rachel
20:28wants to get some flow going. This part of the stairwell isn't original and the landing is actually
20:35not up to height code. So when you walk up the stairs, you feel like you're going to hit your
20:40head,
20:40even for me who's quite short. So I've decided to take it out. So we'll basically cut from here.
20:47So this will all be open space and we'll come back to here and this will be angled back this
20:55way. So it'll
20:55create a nice little alcove here. So the idea is it'll let lots of light out onto the stairwell.
21:04And through this room, we're going to knock through a window to create a walkway through to the bathroom.
21:12So, yeah, it should look nice.
21:21Wow!
21:24This was the original back wall of the house. We've now uncovered the original brick archway
21:32that would have been the original window before this was done. So it's just pretty cool to see it.
21:39Yeah. Yep, we're going. Give it a belt.
21:46Rachel's posse of volunteers isn't afraid to crash through or crash.
21:52Bursting through this windowed wall will create a new thoroughfare, redirecting traffic from the
21:57suite of enlarged bedrooms through to the soon-to-be-renovated and expanded bathroom area.
22:02Straight down. Preserving useful period pieces in demolition is trickier than it looks.
22:12Here we go. Alrighty.
22:15This working bee has boasted some solid achievements, with at least one dramatic breakthrough
22:21and a lovely old window emerges unbroken and available for service somewhere else.
22:31As loyal and committed as they are, there are some tasks here that are well and truly beyond the elbow
22:38grease and best intentions of Rachel's posse of family and mates. Summoning a sulking corner of the
22:45convent up out of its droop and back on a level footing is definitely one for the pros.
22:50You know, obviously there's been subsidence. Operations manager Jamie is leading the lift.
22:5715mm. That corner's down 15mm. And normally we lift to what the building can take, but we'll be
23:05targeting what the structure allows us to get without doing any more damage. Now obviously we've got cracks,
23:12we don't really want to sit there and emphasise on the cracks. The main priority is stabilisation,
23:17but again, this is all dependent on how the building reacts to what we're actually doing.
23:22Jamie and the team will be using a novel technique to correct the convent's posture.
23:27They'll be drilling under the foundations and injecting a self-inflating structural resin
23:32to puff up the sagging corner millimetre by careful millimetre.
23:37It's essentially like putting a balloon in the ground and blowing that balloon up.
23:41The material that we're pumping in expands 30 times its liquid state.
23:45And what we do is we start off very shallow, directly underneath the foundation.
23:49So when we're injecting and we're trying to contain the point of lift,
23:53we're just giving it short shots. Short shots, you know, for the material to expand and do its thing.
24:00As the team readies for lift off, now's the time for the old convent to confess
24:06any secrets that might affect this delicate and potentially dangerous exercise.
24:10And like the good Catholic it is, it does.
24:15Ooh, okay.
24:16Yes.
24:18It wouldn't be the convent if there wasn't some drama.
24:21We've just found like a bit of a cavity beneath what's going to be the butler's pantry.
24:27So it looks like it was a cellar, maybe a wine cellar or something back in the day.
24:32But it's messing with the area that they need to inject the resin into.
24:37So we're just, um, problem solving now and we'll figure out what to do.
24:42Yeah, that's right.
24:42See that wall there? That's the same common foundation.
24:47Hail Mary.
24:50The team runs through some test drills to recalculate the location and depth of the injection sites.
24:59And it's on.
25:01Steve, are you good to go again?
25:03I'm happy. I'll be even happier once we've got this up.
25:07You're good to go. Injecting.
25:11Laser monitors log the progress of the lift.
25:18People short like that.
25:20But the secret cellar isn't making things easy.
25:24The different components of this key corner of the convent refuse to lift in unison.
25:29You can see what it's doing. It's pushing and putting pressure on a single course of brick.
25:34But if we carry on pushing, that falls and collapse.
25:36Then, you know, like, you've now got your foundation exposed.
25:39Yeah. Okay.
25:41We can go down a little bit deeper. I'll go down two metres.
25:44We'll just sit there and monitor it and see how we go.
25:47Yeah.
25:48Good to go, Sivo.
25:49Yeah, good to go.
25:51The team carefully perseveres.
25:54We don't want any movement on that wall again.
25:57So that's why we've gone down below the bottom of it.
26:00So that we're hoping that everything comes up evenly.
26:03We don't want any pressure behind that wall.
26:06Injecting, Sivo.
26:08Yeah, copy that.
26:10All ready.
26:11Two more, Mel.
26:12Well, if we can get without out moving.
26:15The nice short shots.
26:20I'm on 11.5.
26:21We're going to give it another two to three mil.
26:24That there will then put that there at plus 13 mil high.
26:28Out of the 15 mil.
26:30That's pretty good.
26:31That's pretty good.
26:3513 and a half.
26:37That'll do you, mate.
26:38Stop there.
26:43All good down there, Sivo?
26:45Yeah, all good.
26:46No more moves now.
26:48We maybe weren't able to do as much as we wanted with the injections,
26:53but they've got it at a really good point.
26:55The back wall's stable, and that was my main aim in this,
26:59was to make sure that the corner didn't fall any further.
27:02So, yeah, really pleased with today.
27:04All steam ahead from here.
27:06It's great.
27:07With a free wine cellar.
27:19With the superstructure straightened and sturdy,
27:22the way's now clear for another team of specialised tradies
27:26to tap in and get to it.
27:29The guys are busy upstairs.
27:31The carpenters here, and they're finishing framing out
27:34all of the ceilings and walls, basically,
27:37so that we can have new to prop.
27:39We'll have beautiful walls and ceilings when they're finished.
27:42The window frames in the convent's lofted sunroom
27:45were well and truly beyond repair.
27:48A suite of new windows have gone in, in double quick time,
27:52with clear glass to make the most of those sweeping district views.
27:56Rachel's determined to give the old glass new purpose.
28:00It's that lovely model, cathedral glass, and all original,
28:04but hopefully we'll find a place for it.
28:09Reusing as many original fixtures as possible is a policy that's proving very handy.
28:15We had a window that was in the original stairwell,
28:18just a quirky little put-together kind of frame,
28:22and we kept the window in case we could use it.
28:24And sure enough, in the laundry where there's been a frame that was rotted,
28:28where we were trying to just replace the glass, but the window's too rotted to repair,
28:34and the carpenters have just suggested that window will fit,
28:37or they can make it fit with a bit of creative carpentry.
28:41So they're just installing it now, which is great.
28:51The convent, the school, and St Patrick's Church are an emphatic presence in Boorawa,
28:56and they represent the Irish and Catholic stamp of authority and influence from colonial times.
29:03This is First Nations Wiradjuri country, but after a couple of freed Irish convicts
29:09successfully applied their farming backgrounds here in the early 19th century,
29:13scores of Irish immigrants followed and Boorawa took shape.
29:19Rachel's travelled an hour and a half south to Canberra
29:22to find out more about the history of her convent and life within it.
29:27This is the gear.
29:29Oh, yes.
29:31Yes, I have a few pictures of the sisters dressed like this outside the convent.
29:36Yes, right.
29:37Oh, wow.
29:38OK.
29:38So Mary and I both wore that for a very short time before, thank you to God, we were liberated.
29:43And then you could have pants.
29:47Now retired and resident in the national capital,
29:50Sisters of Mercy nuns Francis and Mary know the story of the Boorawa convent very well.
29:55So St Joseph's was only over a small school.
30:00Yes, it still is.
30:02Yes, it's still small.
30:03Oh, here it is.
30:04Here it is.
30:04Here's Boorawa.
30:05We're talking about 1882 they went to Boorawa.
30:08Wow.
30:09Yeah.
30:10But your house wasn't ready for them.
30:11No, I didn't read that.
30:12Until 1884.
30:13Yes, yes.
30:14Sister Frances is a keen student of Catholic development in the region,
30:18and Sister Mary spent two years service at the Boorawa convent.
30:22Well, Boorawa was a very Catholic town.
30:25Like very Irish families, so they called it Little Island.
30:29Yeah, wow.
30:31In 1880, changes to the way government-funded education spurred the Catholic Church to build
30:37its own schools.
30:38And the Sisters of Mercy fanned out through the countryside to staff them and teach in them.
30:44They came to Boorawa because the Catholic community in Boorawa asked them to come.
30:49Yes, okay.
30:49They wanted teachers to teach in the school.
30:52Their school was floundering because there was no money.
30:56So I have here an old map of the grounds, sort of the land, but you know a bit more
31:03about this than I do.
31:04Yeah, so the land for the convent was donated to the parish by John Nagel Ryan.
31:11This John Ryan was prominent among so many other John Ryans at the time that local history
31:17records mail calls at the post office used to erupt in fights amongst John Ryans waiting
31:23for news from Ireland. Unsurprisingly, benefactor John Ryan was among the dignitaries when the Sisters
31:30of Mercy convent was blessed and formally opened in 1885.
31:34Lots of people ask me if it's cold in the house and what it's like, is it spooky?
31:39And I often wondered what it was like living there.
31:43Well, I was there in 1970. We'd be up early in the morning to pray, then go to Mass and
31:50then go to
31:51breakfast and then head off to the playground to do playground duty or be ready for school at the
31:59normal hour. You would have had always something to do, like vender clothes or embroidery or some kind
32:05of lace-making. I did find lots of needles and buttons in all the floorboards.
32:11Yes. And then Sunday was Mass and then what we called visitations. We went in pairs to visit
32:20people in distress, like someone where there'd been a bereavement or someone who was ill.
32:24It was a way of really inserting ourselves into the life of the community.
32:31Taking their ministry out to the people set the Sisters of Mercy
32:34apart from cloistered congregations. They were called the Walking Nuns.
32:39Walking in pairs was a rule established by the Order's founder, Irish sister, Catherine McCauley.
32:46Time rolled on, church priorities changed and the nuns moved out of the Borowa Convent around 1980.
32:53The building was sold in the 90s.
32:55I loved the young, the children that I taught.
32:59Yeah.
32:59And I still am in contact with a few of them.
33:03Yeah.
33:03They were good years.
33:04And I hope to go back and have a little look.
33:07Yes, come and have a party.
33:08Yes, please.
33:10Yeah, that'd be lovely.
33:12Best wishes for the next part of the restoration.
33:15Yes, fingers crossed we can get it done before winter sets in again.
33:31Back in Borowa, Rachel's mates and Rellies are keeping their pledge to help where and when they can.
33:38We're scraping back all the layers of old paint. There's a bit of horse hair plaster on there,
33:44bits of everything. So getting that back to just the brick and then I'll keep an exposed brick wall,
33:48which will be kind of cool.
33:52Office mate Chris is putting his muscle where his mouth is.
33:56Well, I guess I have a little bit to do with this problem seeing as I was the one that
34:00showed Rach the convent on the internet.
34:04So I've made this rod for my own back, I think, by encouraging this in the first place.
34:09Maybe not the best idea in hindsight, but I'm looking forward to when it's all done and I can sit
34:15on the veranda
34:16and look out over Borowa and all share that moment together. But it's going to be a bit of hard
34:22work before that happens.
34:25If you could bottle the enthusiasm amongst this entourage of amateurs,
34:29you could fill the convent's secret cellar to overflowing.
34:33Rachel keeps her convent circle enthused with cheery encouragement.
34:37Let's just get that green bit and the yellow bit off. Perfect!
34:42Yay!
34:46And when they return home, far from the action, she keeps them engaged with tantalising social media updates from the
34:53scene.
34:54Here we go, we're going to open the well, see if there's treasure inside. I doubt it, but we'll see.
35:11Ready?
35:16Holy smokes!
35:18It is very deep.
35:20It looks pretty clean in there. Maybe we can actually use that to water the garden.
35:29So these are the mood boards for the kitchen and dining.
35:33And in those quieter times, alone amidst the dust...
35:37..so sticking to the sort of pinky shades and creams and the emerald greens and the softer greens.
35:43Keeping in that kind of Victorian colour palette.
35:47Rachel continues to focus her vision for this makeover much as she might at her fashion desk.
35:53As much work as there still is to do, it's nice to have a bit of a vision...
35:59..so that you can hold on to that through all of the days of sanding and filling and dust and
36:05everything.
36:06It's nice just to go, one day it might look like this.
36:17It's been eerily quiet on the Borua front.
36:20I reckon it's been about 12 months since I last visited,
36:24and since that time, reports have been uncustomarily sketchy.
36:30Rachel's always keen for a chat and to report on developments,
36:33..but it's like the Convent Project has fallen into radio silence.
36:38Borua itself has been hit by some recent damaging floods,
36:42and I suspect that's made progress difficult.
36:45But I suspect something unusual is going on.
36:49I just hope everything's OK.
36:53Turns out, I shouldn't have worried.
36:56Looks like love has blossomed in Borua.
36:59Hi, Rachel. Hi, Anthony. How are you?
37:02I'm great.
37:03I've got news.
37:05You've got some huge news.
37:06I do.
37:07Congratulations.
37:09I've been very busy.
37:11You sure have.
37:12Anthony, this is Tom.
37:13Tom, lovely to meet you.
37:14You too, mate.
37:15Congratulations to you too.
37:17Tom and I met doing the project, so it's nice that he's a part of it now.
37:22Tom's a local electrician who joined the convent revamped
37:25to tackle the extensive wiring upgrade.
37:28What can I say?
37:29Sparse flu and now Rachel's singular vision has become a family affair.
37:34And, Tom, do you find you're sort of taking over different parts of the project
37:38that Rachel's sort of offloading to you now?
37:40Nah, I think she's steering the ship still.
37:43Yeah.
37:43Yeah, we're just finding people together and, yeah, that's definitely a team effort.
37:47Yeah, it's nice to have someone to share the load with a bit with the house.
37:52Getting more sets of hands on deck too, that's helping a lot, so.
37:54Yeah, right.
37:55Yeah.
37:56There's no doubt that a baby on the way will alter priorities and impact timetables.
38:02So, the staircase has changed quite a bit since last time you're waking up.
38:06Wow, yes, absolutely. What a fantastic space.
38:10Yeah, we've, you know, before you felt like you were going to hit your head
38:13and now we've really opened it up.
38:16The work and intention around the staircase is evident
38:19and redefining the flow upstairs has opened up spaces.
38:23I can see that there's some actual, some, not just cosmetic changes going on,
38:27there's some organisational changes.
38:29Yes.
38:29And for me now it's becoming this whole moment of transition from convent to home.
38:33Yeah.
38:34And the rooms are becoming homely.
38:36Yes.
38:36And that's a lovely thing to be thinking through, I think.
38:38Yeah, it's the house now.
38:40A lot of major work, like Tom's total rewiring of the convent, is out of sight.
38:45It's done and dusted, but I'm still struck by how much still needs to be done.
38:50I'm wondering if it's a two-year project which has now become like a ten-year project.
38:56I think we joke about that sometimes that we'll never finish.
38:59But yeah, yeah.
39:06Rachel, this is a massive change in your life right now.
39:09Yes, it is, yeah.
39:12So falling in love.
39:13Yes.
39:13Building a house.
39:14Yes.
39:15Yeah, having a child.
39:16Yep.
39:17Is this what you imagined?
39:18Not at all, no.
39:20I thought I'd just be down here with my friends at the pub, you know.
39:24Yeah, eventually living down here, but still working in the city.
39:28But that's sort of all changed at the moment.
39:30So two weeks left of work, moving down permanently.
39:34That's, again, that's another big change for you.
39:36Yeah, yeah, yeah.
39:37You seem to be striding through these changes very casually.
39:41Well, yeah, it's all, it's just an adventure.
39:43It all just feels like quite fun and exciting and, you know, just rolling with it.
39:49And, you know, Tom and I have a great relationship and, you know, he's been very supportive.
39:54And it's, yeah, it's just fun doing it together and, yeah, doing the house and experiencing life
40:01down here. It's great.
40:12As you might expect, Rachel's love life is the talk of the convent crew,
40:16although Dad Ian took a while to cotton on.
40:20Rachel turned up one day and she said, oh, the electrician is coming around,
40:26but not as an electrician. And I thought, what other trades does he have?
40:32And she gave me that funny look and, of course, then the penny dropped.
40:38And they've been going on like a house on fire ever since.
40:42They're a good little couple.
40:44I think it's lovely.
40:46Mum Robin and her close friend Alison have been the backbone of the support team.
40:51Rachel's new priorities have upped their convent duties and they couldn't be happier.
40:57Cannot wait for this baby.
41:00That news flew around fairly quickly, didn't it?
41:04Yes, it did.
41:06All family members.
41:08Everybody.
41:09Anybody that would listen to us.
41:11And even if you didn't, got a phone call.
41:15Rachel's been throwing all her time and energy at the convent.
41:19But now, no matter how much she wants this project done,
41:22it's inevitably going to take a back seat to the bub.
41:33So, whether they think that they're going to get things done in the short term,
41:40I think that they're optimistic if they believe that.
41:45This all started with her wanting a project in the country, but then here we are.
41:53Here we are.
41:56I guess that's the beauty of life, isn't it?
41:59That you get a surprise along the way.
42:04And so a schedule, first framed at 10 months and that rolled on past that,
42:10flies completely out of Rachel's freshly reglazed top floor windows.
42:20In fact, a full two years pass before Rachel feels ready to restart in earnest,
42:27and the convent crew reconvenes with its newest member, Little Josie.
42:33Yummy salad.
42:35Oh, no, don't flick it off.
42:38Yeah, Josie's a live wire.
42:40She knows what she wants and she is quite capable of winding their parent, grandparent,
42:47anyone else who's within Cooey around their little finger.
42:50She needs her hands in everything.
42:52It's part of the dilemma of having her at the house is no power tools are safe.
42:58It's been a long hiatus of sky highs and rock bottom lows.
43:04There is just so many things that go into the equation that have slowed it down.
43:08I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and then not 12 months later diagnosed with bowel cancer.
43:15Since then, I've been diagnosed and treated. We're in remission and going along okay.
43:23Can you hold that for mum?
43:24What's up?
43:25What's up?
43:26Cancer of any sort, the word is horrific.
43:30We were very lucky that his treatment went well.
43:34And now I have said to him, that's it now for you.
43:37Don't do anything else. You've done your bit with being ill.
43:41Let's just get on with things.
43:43Getting on with things now means golden time with Josie while mum and dad get back to work.
43:51You're just making the gap bigger.
43:54No, I'm making it easier.
43:57Go for it.
44:00A final concerted effort to turn this convent-cum-country house for one
44:05and someday possible reception centre into a more immediate and appropriate place.
44:11A comfortable family home for three.
44:14We decided we're painting the arcs, right?
44:18No.
44:20We're not painting the arcs?
44:22No, we're leaving them.
44:23We can finish it quicker if it's like that.
44:28All right, we'll go for the distressed look.
44:32It will be a longer term project, but the thing is that Rachel and Tom have a good vision
44:38and they aim to make the whole convent something that the community will have
44:44in this area for years to come.
44:48Only 20 more door frames.
45:10Only 20 more years to go.
45:11Earlier on, I teased Rachel and Tom that their project might take them a decade.
45:18Well, here we are, four years on, and they've invited me down to take a look at what they've
45:24achieved so far.
45:30Emphasis on so far.
45:34Look at this.
45:36Beautiful.
45:37It's all buttoning up.
45:38Hello.
45:39Hello.
45:41Welcome.
45:41Thank you very much.
45:43Come here.
45:43Fantastic picture you're painting here.
45:45This beautiful place.
45:46Yep.
45:47It's been a long time coming.
45:48Yeah.
45:49Finally got it tidy and looking welcoming from down the street.
45:53Yeah.
45:53And got the lights on and Mike from the pub said,
45:56I saw the lights.
45:57It looks alive.
45:59So it's very nice to have the support of everyone.
46:01You've got people walking past the front gate all the time.
46:04Yes.
46:04Dying to come in.
46:05They come in.
46:06Yes.
46:06They just come in and want to have a look and don't understand it's a house.
46:10Yeah, no.
46:11Right.
46:11Because I know everyone's had eyes on this place.
46:14Yeah.
46:14People ask us all the time.
46:15How's it going?
46:16You know, when are you going to be finished?
46:18And we're trying.
46:19Yeah.
46:20We're probably.
46:20Slow and steady.
46:21Probably halfway there.
46:22Not finished.
46:23Not quite finished.
46:24Yeah.
46:24I see.
46:25Hey, so why is that?
46:27Just too big.
46:28Big job.
46:28Yeah.
46:28Big job.
46:29Yeah.
46:30A lot of work.
46:30A lot of work.
46:31A lot of work.
46:32Okay.
46:32Yeah.
46:33But we'd love to show you what we have done.
46:35Absolutely.
46:35Yeah.
46:36Yeah.
46:36Okay.
46:36Well, why don't you come in and have a look?
46:37Let's have a look.
46:38So, four years and halfway done.
46:41Looks like my predicted timeline might not be too wide of the mark.
46:46But halfway there isn't almost done.
46:49Where precisely are Rachel and Tom in this marathon makeover?
46:55Um.
46:56We do have a light though.
46:57A light?
46:58Yeah.
46:58Does it work?
46:58Yeah, absolutely.
46:59It works, Tom?
47:00Yeah, for sure.
47:01Oh, yeah.
47:02There you go.
47:03Well, at least the cavernous entryway is painted.
47:06A pretty little neutral pinky tone.
47:09Yeah.
47:09And it's called Forever Romance.
47:11Oh.
47:11Which Tom hates it when I bring that up.
47:13But I love that we've settled on a colour called Forever Romance.
47:16That works for me.
47:19Just in this pocket alone, stripping the timber work and blitzing the rampant faux bois,
47:24that mock timber painted treatment, has been arduous.
47:28What did it take?
47:29Months?
47:29Weeks?
47:30Yeah.
47:31Just dragged on.
47:32Yeah.
47:32Yeah.
47:33We had the doors out on work tables and I was doing the doors and Tom was here doing
47:38the frames and yeah, a bit of a team effort.
47:42I've got this vision of you standing in that door and you standing in this door and you're
47:45both sort of swearing at each other.
47:46That's great.
47:46That's exactly how it went, didn't it?
47:51The Waratah Room has found a new purpose.
47:57This is your new dining room.
47:59Yeah.
47:59It was where the nuns was their office, wasn't it?
48:02It was their office and they taught music in here as well.
48:06So it's sort of nice to give it a different purpose.
48:11The dining room is looking the part and those enormous windows are a showpiece,
48:16but eliminating or modifying the faux bois here remains a project for another time.
48:21Can we have a look at that?
48:22Yeah, let's have a look.
48:24Across the way, there's an example of how Rachel's had to rethink her original plans.
48:31It probably started more as like a fancy sitting room for me, but now that we're a family,
48:36it kind of has to be like a little family lounge room.
48:39Sure.
48:40Accommodate a little two-year-old.
48:41Yes.
48:41Yeah, accommodate a two-year-old.
48:43So I can see you've got a beautiful mantelpiece in here.
48:46That's looking very fresh. Where did that come from?
48:48That's come from upstairs.
48:50Upstairs.
48:50Yeah.
48:51Okay, so you had to replace the original.
48:53The old one was a little bit damaged, so we thought we'd bring the nice one down here.
48:56Yeah, great. That looks fantastic. Yeah.
48:59But you don't have to walk far to see what's still to be done.
49:03And it's a mountain to climb.
49:06So just stick to the side.
49:08It will be finished one day soon.
49:12We just haven't quite gotten to the ballast yet.
49:15Okay, that's a bit precarious.
49:16You just want to get that fixed ASAP?
49:17Yes.
49:18There's plenty more light flooding this reorganised stairwell.
49:22The bedrooms upstairs remain very much works in progress.
49:27Still, they're big and bright, and you can sense the grandeur in waiting.
49:32The bathroom.
49:34Yes.
49:35Oh, very nice.
49:36That little powder room.
49:37Great. All finished up.
49:38Lovely.
49:39Very contemporary in here.
49:43The Spartan, unwelcoming facilities the nuns endured through the active life of the convent
49:49and through the grim chill of Boorawa's cold seasons have been swept away.
49:53Even the most pious of them would have to admit to at least a little envy here.
49:58Now, this was the corner of the whole house that had the subsidence issues, right?
50:02Yes.
50:03Yeah.
50:03Has that all worked?
50:04Yeah, we haven't had any further damage.
50:08We haven't filled the cellar in yet, but we may need to do a little bit more.
50:12Another job.
50:12Yeah.
50:13Another job.
50:14So, it's working though.
50:15It's working.
50:16All those big cracks, that's all taken care of.
50:18Yeah.
50:19Haven't seen anything since.
50:20No, and there was an earthquake too.
50:22Nothing happened, we thought.
50:23When was the earthquake?
50:24That was a few weeks ago.
50:25It was on the news.
50:26Especially, yeah.
50:26It was on the telly.
50:29And so you survived that, okay?
50:30We survived that, and she's still standing.
50:32Still standing.
50:33The suite of new, clear windows filled the upstairs sunroom with light, and now celebrate
50:40that once hidden outlook across the river and countryside.
50:44Oh, I like this.
50:45I like this.
50:46This is feeling...
50:47But, arguably, the most spectacular view and most spectacular progress is downstairs.
50:53The kitchen.
50:55Really bright room here.
50:56I'm loving the fact that this is sort of a commitment.
50:59You've made the commitment.
51:00Yes.
51:00The room is looking great.
51:01You can hang your head on this one.
51:03Yes.
51:03Yeah, it's come together beautifully, and you know, I never thought we'd have all this.
51:07It's amazing.
51:08Yeah.
51:08I sort of bought the place thinking I wouldn't put too much money into this area, though.
51:13Do it a bit rustic, and I showed Tom one day photos of sort of dream kitchens, and he said,
51:19well, we're doing that.
51:20That's what we're doing, if that's what you want.
51:22And these lights, Tom, this is your handiwork?
51:25They all, um, all the shades come from the bedrooms upstairs.
51:28Right.
51:29Yep.
51:29And we, um, yeah, made it work in here the best we could, yeah.
51:32They look great.
51:33They're so pretty.
51:34Mm.
51:36We shouldn't be surprised that accomplished baker and committed cook, Rachel,
51:40has put her heart and soul and energy into the engine room of the house.
51:44It's a classy, functional centrepiece.
51:49But the gloss here only goes to highlight the absence of it still in so much of the convent.
51:56Normally, at this stage, I'm sitting here saying, congratulations on finishing a beautiful project.
52:01But that is not the case here.
52:03Not yet.
52:04Not yet.
52:04I mean, what I am super impressed by, though, is you seem to be leaning into this more rather than
52:10less.
52:10This behemoth of a project has not broken you.
52:13Not yet.
52:14Not yet.
52:15So how long are you going to keep chipping away at it?
52:19We joke a lot.
52:20It'll be Josie's.
52:22She'll have to finish it when she's older.
52:23Yeah, we're just going to pass it on.
52:24Or we joke, you know, maybe we'll be done by the time she starts school or is it high school
52:30or, you know.
52:31Hopefully, maybe five years.
52:33Yeah.
52:33We sort of want to put a bit of a timeline on it.
52:35Yeah.
52:36So, yeah.
52:36We don't want to be doing it forever, but we know there's certain stages that have to get done.
52:42Bathroom and kitchen are done so it's livable and we've got those, like, comfortable areas now.
52:48So we sort of look at it in stages of things we want to do.
52:52Yeah.
52:52And heating and some carpet and fixing the veranda upstairs.
52:57At what point do you think it will really feel like your home?
53:02Because it still has a sort of a vibe of a convent around it.
53:05Yeah.
53:06You kind of want it to feel soft and homely and cosy.
53:08Yeah.
53:08Yeah.
53:09I think it's starting to feel like a home already.
53:11Yeah.
53:11But you're living at your parents' place right now, aren't you?
53:15Yeah.
53:16So how long until you want to move in here?
53:19We could move.
53:20The only thing is winter.
53:21Tom measured it last winter.
53:23Yeah, I think it was five degrees in the house.
53:25Oh!
53:25Yeah, it was a punish.
53:27It was warmer outside than it was inside.
53:29Oh, no.
53:31You've always been working on a very limited budget.
53:35Yes.
53:35Like I said, $200,000.
53:36Yeah.
53:36So how much have you spent to this point?
53:39We're nearly at $300.
53:40So with what I had and then with what Tom's put into it and what we've just been slowly
53:46putting into it over the last few years.
53:48I think we need about $50,000 to put in carpet and do the floors and make the veranda upstairs
53:55safe and then probably another $50,000 after that to do heating properly.
54:02Yep.
54:03It's just turned into an expensive hobby.
54:05Yeah.
54:06Yeah.
54:06Yeah.
54:07Yes.
54:07We are smart about it and we aren't putting more into it than what it's worth.
54:12Right.
54:13So I'm not hearing any regrets about buying the place and committing in the first place.
54:17I mean, yeah, if I didn't buy it, I wouldn't have Tom or Josie.
54:20So there's a lot to be grateful for.
54:22Yeah.
54:23Even the days where you're like sanding and scraping and shivering away because there's no heating
54:29and it's cold and everything's expensive.
54:31Yeah, it's still been such an adventure.
54:34Definitely.
54:34Yeah.
54:34I've come out of here for a job and it's been my most expensive one yet, so.
54:40Yeah.
54:41For you both, this is definitely a life less ordinary.
54:44It's a great adventure you're having.
54:46Yeah.
54:47Yeah.
54:47And it seems like you've got a long, you've got a long road ahead of you.
54:50Yeah.
54:51In the best way and, yeah, the other way as well.
54:54Yeah.
54:54Yeah.
54:55A long road, but a good road.
54:57Yeah.
54:58Lovely.
54:58Yeah.
54:58Thanks, Steve.
54:59Good night.
55:03Hello.
55:05Welcome.
55:08Oh, thanks, Mama.
55:11Wow.
55:12Hello.
55:20Oh my goodness.
55:21Oh my goodness.
55:23Look at the tiles.
55:25Oh, Rachie.
55:27It's so Rachel.
55:34All of you have helped in some way, whether it was tiling, painting, getting up ladders
55:39and scaffolds, just moral support telling us we could do it.
55:43It's been wonderful.
55:44So, um, enjoy this evening, have a wine and then back on the tools tomorrow.
55:48All right.
55:58They say life's what happens when you're busy making other plans.
56:03And sure enough, Rachael arrived here single and singularly determined to create a weekend
56:09getaway come function centre and ended up with a partner, a baby and a gargantuan family home.
56:20For Rachael, Tom and the convent, it has been a wonderful turn of events.
56:25And I reckon even the nuns would be having a wry smile.
56:56So, of course, what happened, it means that there isn't aonse-ούμε, but many family of the one and small
56:59girls
Comments