When Nathan Kulinitsch and his wife bought their six-bedroom, heritage-listed townhouse in Dawes Point, it was the realisation of a long-held dream to own something with history in its bones.
The $4.2 million terrace was built in 1841 by a wealthy tradesman as one of the city’s first investment properties and includes a rare colonial marble mantelpiece, one of which also features in NSW Parliament House.
Nathan Kulinitsch is restoring his house in Dawes Point. Credit: Wolter Peeters
But the couple had no idea of the challenge and expense that lay ahead as caretakers of one of Sydney’s oldest buildings.
The property in Lower Fort Street was resumed by the government after an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1900, then served as a boarding house for 100 years, suffering from neglect and undergoing inappropriate repairs, Kulinitsch says.
The government sold the terrace in 2010 – four years before the sale of hundreds of other public housing properties nearby – and Kulinitsch and his wife took the keys last year.
“We thought we knew what we were getting into, but once you start to deal with the heritage constraints, and understanding how things were done and why … you realise everything takes twice as long,” Kulinitsch said.
“The cost of tradespeople and materials in Australia is just horrific … and there are only a few tradespeople that care about maintaining those traditional practices.”
Frustrated, Kulinitsch turned to Google, where he saw an advertisement for a six-day training course in heritage conservation. The catch? It was taking place 1000 kilometres away in Broken Hill, to restore a 130-year-old commercial building in the main street.
The Sydneysider took a gamble. He booked leave from his office job, packed a bag and turned up with his father-in-law to a building site on the edge of the outback, ready to learn from a British-trained stonemason who had honed his skills on castles and cathedrals.
“The building was a wreck,” Kulinitsch said of his first impressions of the Pirie Building, constructed in 1891 and restored with the help of a $210,000 federal heritage grant.
“When we started it was in really rough shape. The stone was fracturing, the paint work was peeling … but in the course of a week it went from a ‘should be demolished’ building to one with quite a lovely facade, using these heritage, traditional techniques.”
Kulinitsch learnt how to repair damaged timber, choose paint for heritage stonework and mix lime mortar for sandstone (it is softer than concrete, so building movement won’t crack the stone).
“A lot of the techniques you use for heritage restoration are really touchy-feely. You need to be able to see how certain paints get applied, and understand how lime should feel when it sticks ... and you can’t touch and feel things on YouTube,” he said.
Kulinitsch estimates the $600 course has saved him $70,000 so far by enabling him to do his own home repairs.
Repairs undertaken by Nathan Kulinitsch to brace a termite-damaged beam in his house in Dawes Point.Credit:
Heritage builder Keith McAllister, who ran the program, said the course allowed him to pass on skills that were in danger of being lost in Australia, and at least one trainee, from Wilcannia, had secured employment as a result.
“[The motivation] is just seeing all the damage that’s been created throughout Australia from using inappropriate materials and trying to put that right, and the only way to put that right is educating people,” McAllister said.
“Australian building heritage ... needs to be maintained. We don’t want to lose it.”
The program also restored the Pirie Building without the unviable $1 million price tag that such work would normally carry.
Keith McAllister and Liz Vines at the top of the Pirie Building in Broken Hill.Credit:
Broken Hill heritage adviser Liz Vines, who organised the grant, said the privately owned building had been on her radar since she began working in the heritage-listed city almost 40 years ago and its restoration was important for civic pride given its prominent position. It was once home to drapers, journalists, architects and ironmongers.
“What this city does have is this legacy of buildings from the 1890s onwards, designed by architects from Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, and they are very interesting because of the wealth of the city at the time, through the mines,” she said. “The best architects in the country worked there.
“We need to look after these special legacy places of our past, that tell a story and give us a sense of place, and a point of difference.
“And if we’re to preserve these buildings of our past, we have to know how to do that properly, and we can’t be using inappropriate modern materials on old buildings because they don’t work.”
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the upgrade “restores more than a facade – it restores a piece of our nation’s history … while also boosting local jobs in the outback”.
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