PHOTOS: Exclusive look at Royal Hotel restoration

Restoration underway to bring Maryborough icon back to life

Josh Harrison on steps leading to Bazaar St from the excavated cellar.

A SAND-FILLED cellar has been excavated and walls stripped to reveal elegant craftsmanship of 120 years ago as Maryborough’s Royal Hotel begins its journey back to grandeur.

New owners IJS Property Group began the challenging reconstruction scheme three months ago after buying the iconic hotel in the heart of the city.

Upstairs rooms are being converted into five-star quality heritage accommodation.

Rich tiles, parquetry and chandeliers in the public areas will be polished to their original condition.

The bar and some rooms facing Bazaar St could be open by Christmas with restoration of the remaining rooms and the two-storey dining room next year.

Pressed tin under the main staircase.

Project supervisor Josh Harrison said sand in the cellar had been emptied by hand after workers prised off concrete over the floor in the corner bar area.

“Each bucket of sand had to be handled three or four times. We shovelled it into one corner, then lifted it out into a wheelbarrow and carted it outside,” he said.

The cellar was thought to have been filled in more than 40 years ago.

A water mark signals either a flood line or the wet sand line from retained moisture.

Steps leading up to small gates in Bazaar St have also been unblocked, with daylight again filtering through to the underground room.

IJS Property Group intends to restore the cellar, dating back to the late 1800s, and the rest of the hotel, built in 1902, to the glory days when it was recognised as “one of the finest hotels north of Sydney and the most complete in Australia”.

Real estate agent Matt Mercer says the new owner of the former Royal Hotel in Maryborough is planning to fully restore the heritage-listed building.

In 1900 Richard Matthews Hyne commissioned a design incorporating the best features of Shepheard’s Hotel in Cairo and the Oriental Hotel in Colombo.

He died shortly before the rebuilt hotel opened.

An “extravagant” stair hall and imposing timber staircase remain in good condition.

Original parquetry and tiles, used to enhance the hotel’s oriental aspects, have been found under floor coverings and glass features behind boarded-up walls.

Lowered ceilings have been removed to reveal original lofty pressed tin. More decorated tin has been uncovered under the double staircase.

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