Restoration Australia (2015–2018): Season 1, Episode 7 - Holowiliena - full transcript
[Sibella] Historic houses across Australia
are at risk of being lost forever.
They're links to our past
and should be saved.
In this series, you'll meet families
facing the challenge of a lifetime.
[man grunts]
- Here we are, dumb and dumber.
- [both laugh]
Half a million dollars on this?
Are we mad?
[Sibella] They'll quickly realize
the sheer scale of the projects...
[man]
Not quite what I meant.
...as they restore these ruins
to family homes.
I'm Sibella Court.
I'm a designer, author,
lover of old houses and restoration.
I'm passionate about old buildings
and the need to save our history.
[Sibella] To succeed, our families
must learn dying heritage skills
and stick to budget.
He just likes to spend money.
Bastards, bastards, bastards.
Oh, Jo! No, don't!
It's a slow train wreck.
[Sibella] Can they rescue
their slice of Australia's history
before it's too late?
This is Restoration Australia.
This story starts in 1852.
Scottish blacksmith William Warwick,
his wife and six children
walked more than 500 kilometers
from Adelaide
for a new life as farmers
in remote South Australia.
He chose a site rich in water
and natural resources.
Using these raw materials,
this tough pioneering family
built all they needed
to survive in a harsh land.
[birds squawking]
The pastoral lease
they acquired 160 years ago
is still their family home even if,
at times, it hangs by a thread.
William Warwick's
great-great-granddaughter, Frances,
lives on the sheep station
with her husband, Luke, and her parents.
[horn honking]
They hold the record
for the longest occupation of
a grazing lease by the same family,
but drought and low wool prices
mean the family
often struggles to make a living.
Key to their future is restoring
two of the original buildings
that are falling down.
[motorcycle revving]
[woman] These days, the sheep station life
doesn't give a good enough return
for two families just to live,
let alone to put money
back into restoring buildings.
[clippers buzzing]
So, we're looking at diversifying
a little, sharing our history,
maybe opening up to tourists
to get a little bit of extra income.
[Sibella] So, can this family
restore two historic buildings
and secure its future?
Sibella, hi. Welcome to Holowiliena.
- Lovely to finally meet you.
- I'm Frances. You, too.
- Yeah, how are you?
- Hi, Luke.
[woman] And this is Todd and Stella.
So, tell me about the restoration
work you wanna do here.
Well, there's a little pine-and-pug shack
and that's an important part
of our history,
and we believe this is one
of the original buildings.
It's had several incarnations
in its day.
At one stage, it was used
as an accommodation block
for up to 14 people.
[Sibella] Because they could be
built quickly
from local materials,
these pug-and-pine shacks were crucial
to early white settlement in Australia,
but very few have survived
as intact as this one.
[Frances] We really want to keep that
and protect it,
bring it back to original condition,
but having said that, we don't know how.
The next most important building
is the cellar,
which is down in the bank of the creek.
This was built in 1855,
and that's also at the point,
if we don't do something,
that could well be lost.
[Sibella] Every remote station
had a cellar,
which was essential
for storing and preserving food.
It had red gum beams holding the roof up,
and they've rotted or been eaten out
and collapsed,
so the roof's caved in
and a wall's about to fall down.
[Sibella] Frances also wants to revive
her great-great-grandfather's
blacksmith's forge.
[Frances] The blacksmith shop
was walked out of 60 years ago,
and hasn't been touched.
So, that's a bit of a special one.
It would be really nice
to get that up and going again.
- You want to spark it up? [laughs]
- Yeah, right.
I'd like to, but who's gonna
teach me to blacksmith out here?
So, do you have a budget,
- and do you guys have...
- [Frances laughing]
...a skill-set that'll help it?
Uh, not much of either, but keen to learn
and got the heart and the willingness.
So, that's a good start, I suppose.
So, I'd love to have a look around
and have a sticky beak.
- We're excited to show you.
- Yeah, we'd love to show you.
[Sibella] There are clues
to Holowiliena's history
all over this property.
Come and have a look in here,
Sibella. You'll like this.
So, this is the station store,
Sibella, so...
This is incredible!
Yeah, I've been excited
about showing you this, actually.
- I thought you might like it.
- [Sibella] This is my kind of collecting.
[Frances] We've got all the ledgers here
of records of people coming in
and collecting things from the storeroom,
whether it was tea or sugar.
Lots of tobacco. Everybody smoked.
Actually, there's something I'd like
to show you that is pretty special.
You can see it's got
"R. Warwick" on there...
- Yeah.
- ...and "1907".
This is my great-grandfather's
traveling sewing kit.
So, if this could tell stories...
Oh, isn't it lovely?
Can I open one of these?
Absolutely.
I think everything's still in there.
It's so sweetly made. Buttons.
[Frances] My great-grandfather
traveled around the place
and worked at different stations.
If your button fell off, you couldn't wait
for someone else to sew it back on...
- No!
- ...if you were out at camp.
- You just had to get on with it.
- [Sibella] That's so lovely to have.
- It's pretty special, isn't it?
- Yeah.
[projector whirs]
[all exclaim]
[Frances] Horses.
[woman] He's going to check its teeth.
[Frances] What's happening now?
I've had a great day meeting the family,
but I just don't know
how they're going to get
this project off the ground.
They don't have any budget and
not many heritage skills to speak of,
and also they've gotta run
this sheep station at the same time.
[Sibella] But Frances is very determined
and she might just find a way.
[man] Oh, cut!
[Sibella] And two weeks later,
Frances strikes it lucky.
In Adelaide, she's found
English craftsman Keith McAllister.
He teaches tradesmen
how to save old buildings
and is always looking
for on-the-job training.
Could Holowiliena be a match made
in restoration heaven?
- Hi. How's it going?
- [Frances] G'day, Keith. How you going?
- [Luke] How you going?
- You must be Luke.
- Yeah. Must be Keith.
- Hello, Luke. Keith.
[Frances] So, this is the shack...
[Sibella] If Keith thinks Holowiliena
has buildings suited to training,
he might be able
to offer the family a lifeline.
[Keith] So, this is a pug-and-pine
constructed building.
These buildings are really rare.
It's made of native pines,
and the pug
is actually lime mortar and sand.
It's interesting to see the render.
[Sibella] My grandfather put that on
in the 1940s,
so that's certainly not original.
Oh, wow! This is amazing.
[Keith] Straight away,
I got this Hessian bag ceiling in here
which is pretty unique as well.
Very few properties in Australia
have got this detail.
Oh, right.
[Sibella] It's a good start,
but will Keith share the same enthusiasm
for the rest of the project?
So, this is the blacksmith shop, Keith.
Co me in and have a look.
So, I've had a bit of an idea
about using
the blacksmith shop here as well
and potentially maybe make a little
gate or something for the shack.
That's my ideal dream.
[Sibella] Finding someone to reinvigorate
this forge is important.
Luke is keen to learn
the old blacksmith skills
to help save the buildings.
Well, it's a great opportunity
to actually make something
which is gonna be useful to the property.
[indistinct chattering]
[Sibella] The other major part
of this restoration
is the 1850s stone cellar,
but will this be too much of
a challenge for Keith's students?
[Frances] So, this is the other part
of th e project, Keith. This is the cellar.
[Sibella] As well as food, ammunition
and explosives were stored in cellars.
We think this cellar was probably built
when the first homestead was built here.
So, that was before 1855
and used for food storage
in those very early days.
[Frances] There's also actually
still remaining bits of food
in the back-room of the cellar.
- Okay. Is that right?
- It's still in its natural state.
We didn't know what was gonna be in here,
but have a look, and it's...
just full of rock salt,
which would have been used
for salting down meat.
[Keith] That's a fantastic find.
It's probably one of the best
cellars I've seen on stations
or in these remote areas.
[Sibella] The tour over,
it's now decision time for Keith.
So, what do you reckon, Keith?
Do you think you're gonna be able
to help us out with this?
Well, you know,
with the history of the place
and you know, what I've seen
to date, I'm really satisfied
and feel confident that
we can do something for you.
- It's a goer for me.
- Great!
But there is some preparation work.
Are you going to be okay with that?
Oh, we'll do anything
to make this happen. [laughs]
[Keith] Well done, mate.
[Luke] Beauty!
- How good is that?
- Brilliant! Whoo-hoo!
[both chuckle]
[Luke] The property boundary comes in...
[Sibella] This is great news.
Keith will bring 20 tradies,
saving Frances and Luke
around $50,000 in wages
because it's part of
an industry-funded training scheme.
But is four days really enough
to get the job done?
[indistinct talking]
- [birds squawking]
- [animals chittering]
[chainsaw buzzing]
[Sibella] Keith has given Frances and Luke
a long list of work to do,
but with the help of family and friends,
timbers for the shack are cut...
That's pretty good, eh?
...the stone wall in the cellar rebuilt,
and new roof beams installed.
Then there's the preparation work
on the shack,
but the biggest challenge is firing
up the station's old lime kiln
to make the lime mortar
for the restoration.
Right now,
no-one's sure exactly how it works.
There's a good bit down here, Todd.
Do you think this is the right stone?
Yeah, it looks like it to me.
It's probably the best I can find...
[Sibella] Most lime mortar is imported
and is very expensive.
If Luke and Frances can make their
own, it will be a huge cash saving.
But can they do it using the same
method as their ancestors?
[Frances] There are diary entries here
that my grandfather wrote in the 1940s.
He wrote then about
how it was done in the old days,
and I can't see why we can't do it now.
Is this load number...
- Four loads should cover it.
- ...four?
[Frances] That's about
the last of the Mal lee.
[Luke] Yeah, that'll do.
[Luke] There's not much
record of how they fired it
or what size timber or stone they used.
We asked a lot of people in the
district what they know about it.
People knew of lime kilns
and knew it had been done,
but never really knew the process.
So, it was pretty much just a guess.
Righto, this kiln's pretty full.
- [Frances] Yep.
- I'm ready for those bones, Frances.
[Sibella] With the kiln loaded
with stone and wood,
it's time to add a special ingredient.
Get set! Go!
[Luke] Oh, well done!
[Frances] Oh!
Dad says when they burned lime years ago,
they put bones in the kiln then.
[Luke] It makes sense, that.
It's all made of calcium, so...
- Yeah, absolutely.
- ...they should burn down all right.
- Right.
- [Frances] Here we go.
- [Luke] Let's burn it.
- Okay, go.
[Frances] Lighting the kiln
was quite a big event.
- It's in there.
- Is it going?
Yeah, it's still light.
[Frances] Little bit of smoke out the top.
- [Luke] That's a good sign.
- [Frances chuckles]
[motor whirs]
It looks like walking in clouds,
doesn't it?
You think you could walk across that.
Look at that, Luke. Isn't it beautiful?
[Luke] Oh, wow!
- Now she's crackling away.
- [Frances] Hear it? Yeah.
[Luke] Once the smoke
started coming through
and you could hear
the rumble underneath...
- [Frances] Crackle, crackle.
- ...it was almost, like,
stand back and watch.
That's gotta look pretty good
tonight in the dark.
[fire crackling]
[birds chirping]
- [Luke] Oh, wow!
- [both chuckle]
That's burned down
a fair bit in 15 hours, hasn't it?
- Look how the level's dropped.
- Still red-hot there.
[Luke] I might just fish a rock out,
if I can get to it.
[Frances] I think Keith will be
really pleased
that we gave it a go.
[Sibella] It's taken a long time,
so hopefully they've pulled this off.
Oh, look at that! Check that out!
Well, let's see
if it's all been worthwhile, eh?
[laughs] A lot of work,
so this is the test.
This is the test.
[Sibella] If it works,
adding water will eventually turn
the cooked stone into lime putty.
[Frances] That's what we were after.
[Luke] Whoa. Check that out.
Look at that! It's just falling apart.
[Frances] Now we understand the process,
we've sort of taken that step back
in time, felt what it was like
and done it ourselves, and that's
quite special, quite unique.
Here we go. There's the lime.
[Sibella] This lime putty
is the key ingredient
in the restoration of Holowiliena
and can be used in mortar,
render, and whitewash.
After the successful lime burn,
Frances and Luke want to dig deeper
into their history,
keen for the restoration
to honor the past.
The station records are kept in
the land titles office in Adelaide.
[Frances] Oh, wow! [chuckles]
[Luke] Here you go. Look at that.
[Sibella] Here they find beautifully
illustrated field books,
produced by the surveyor
Alexander Woodroffe Goyder in 1888
to assess properties for land tax.
And then they've got lovely little
diagrams of some of the buildings.
Oh, wow!
[Sibella] At that time,
the pug-and-pine shack stored dingo skins
and was known as the "scalp hut".
[Luke] Oh, scalp hut. Here we go.
[Frances] Yep.
That's what we're after. What's it say?
[Frances] "Roof, good. Iron, good.
Floor, slate, go od.
Four small windows, one door..."
- Well, that matches the hut.
- Yeah, that's it.
[Sibella] For a glimpse of the future,
I'm meeting Frances and Luke
at a restored pug-and-pine shack
in the Flinders Ranges National Park.
It's similar to Holowiliena
and could give Frances and Luke an idea
of what their cottage
may eventually look like.
So, is this your inspiration?
[Luke] Sure is. Be good if ours
could look like that.
- [Sibella] Was this a ruin?
- It was, totally.
Yeah, they rebuilt it with volunteers.
[Sibella] So, this took three years,
and you guys have got four days.
[Luke] Well, Keith's hoping,
once the render comes off,
that we've just got to replace
some of the rotted pines.
So, that'll create less work for us,
instead of a total rebuild.
Let's go have a look, eh?
[door clicks open]
Oh, they've done a lovely job in here.
- Check this out.
- Wow. It's nice, isn't it?
Got a nice feeling, hasn't it?
[Sibella] Are you hoping
to do something like this?
[Frances] Yeah, I think so.
Like, the same sort of feel,
but maybe a bit cosier
so that people
could actually sleep in there.
[Sibella] Not so breezy?
[Luke] Mmm.
[all chuckle]
Render the walls, perhaps, and
a couple of beds and a usable space.
[Sibella] Back at Holowiliena,
the optimism doesn't last long.
Behind the render is a major problem.
Most of the old pine logs are rotten,
and adding to the stress,
Keith has returned
to check on their progress.
[Keith] So, I can see a lot
of the timbers are exposed now
and there's been a lot of deterioration.
I guess we'd have to replace
the whole of these pines here,
by the looks of it.
[Luke] Not all the pines in the building?
[Keith] Yeah, I think definitely 100%.
You know, we're talking about
total replacement,
- aren't we now?
- [Luke] Yeah.
- You okay with that?
- Yeah, um...
have to do a fair bit of work
in a matter of a couple of weeks, um...
- Yeah.
- [Frances] On the other side of that,
you're effectively demolishing
the building that we've got
and building a new building.
[Keith] And that's a fair point as well.
[Frances] That's not what
we started out to do.
[Sibella] It's a blow.
It means Luke must cut dozens more pines.
It also raises some serious concerns
about how much of the shack's
character will be lost.
[Luke] Well, this is what we've done
since you were here last.
[Sibella] Luke has made some progress
on the cellar,
but is it enough for Keith and his
team to start work in just two weeks?
- How long did this take?
- Oh, a couple of days.
Did the wall. Two men. Me and my mate.
So, looks like you've dismantled
this wall from the footing
and rebuilt it, which is good.
[Keith] So, it's made it more stable.
And traditional lime mortar.
- Yeah, the stuff we burned.
- Yeah.
So that worked out good.
It was good to work with.
[Keith] Just when you touch it,
it just feels... It feels good.
Done a really excellent job. Well done.
You put these bearers in.
Quite substantial timbers as well.
So, how did you get 'em in?
If I told you I put them by hand,
I'd be lying, wouldn't I?
- [both chuckle]
- You would, too.
[Sibella] Fortunately,
the cellar is in good shape,
but the same cannot be said for the shack.
So, Keith's been up
for his last visit before the big week.
- Mmm.
- How do you feel about it?
We were quite happy with where
we were at prior to his arrival.
We've done everything
we've been asked to do
and happy with the results,
and it's looking pretty good,
but we were a bit taken aback
when he told us
we'd need to rebuild this building.
[Luke] We weren't expecting that, were we?
- [Frances] No, we sure weren't.
- We can do it,
but it was just
a bit of a rude shock at the time.
[horn blares]
[Sibella] The big day has finally arrived.
Keith and a convoy of 20 tradesmen
are on their way to Holowiliena
in South Australia's
remote Flinders Ranges.
Can they restore a slice
of Australia's pioneering history
in just four days?
[horn blares]
Here they come! Oh, wow, look
at that little yellow one.
[laughs] Oh! What is it? A Morris?
[Sibella] Keith has a surprise
for the Warwicks.
He's brought along Geoff Barnes,
a master blacksmith from Adelaide,
to revive the old forge
and teach Luke
some traditional smithing skills.
- [Luke] Geoff, how are you going?
- Good, mate. Oof!
Go and say hello to Geoff.
- Welcome to Holowiliena.
- It's been a long drive.
- [laughing]
- Hello! You must be Todd.
[Sibella] Tradesmen are scarce when
you live 500 km from a major city,
so this is a special moment
for the family.
- William.
- William?
Lovely to meet you, William. I'm Frances.
[Sibella] It's day one
of the restoration project
and a defining moment
for Holowiliena Station.
[thunder rumbles]
[Keith] Okay, guys, listen up.
You can see the extensive work we've
gotta do on the scalp hut behind me,
and you passed the cellar down there.
We've got to try and complete this
in four days, all right?
If it rains, you know,
us Poms will obviously work through,
but you Australians
will obviously take cover.
- [all laughing]
- Right, so,
- have a good week, guys.
- [man] Let's go.
[grunts]
[Sibella] Four teams of five builders
will tackle the restoration.
Two on carpentry and timber,
two on stone masonry and rendering.
[drilling]
Frances and Luke should be excited,
but they're still worried about
how much of the past will be lost.
[Frances] We still don't know
how it's going to look.
We've always known it as a building
that's been completely rendered.
I guess we're all a little bit nervous
as to how that's going to fit
with how we know Holowiliena.
We've made it a decision now,
so we're happy to roll with it...
- [Frances] We are.
- ...and we trust you'll do a good job.
Listen, I think at the end of today
you're gonna be happy
with what we've achieved,
and it'll give you an insight
to what's gonna be achieved
by the end of the week as well.
[indistinct talking]
[Sibella] Just like the early settlers,
the workers are using key materials
from the property,
but power tools
will shave weeks off the time
it took William Warwick
to get the job done.
[tools whirring]
Fair bit of action.
The boys are straight into it.
[Frances] It's definitely
a big, exciting day for us.
I mean, just to have this number
of people here is one thing,
but to have all the action as well
is super exciting.
[chainsaw revving]
[Luke] This is the Holowiliena forge.
[Sibella] Luke is very keen
to carry on the tradition
of the first blacksmith of Holowiliena,
William Warwick,
and to hand those skills
on to the next generation.
Now, the question is
will the bellows work?
Master blacksmith Geoff Barnes's
task is to bring it back to life.
I'm a bit concerned about this hole.
Ah! Yes, yes.
What are we going to do about that?
We might not be able to fire this up
quite as easily as what we'd hoped.
[Sibella] But buried in a shed
is something that could save the day.
This dusty vacuum cleaner
might provide enough air
to replace the broken bellows.
[vacuum cleaner drones]
I think we've got it, Luke.
After 50 years,
we've got fire in the hearth again.
[Geoff] Get some air on it, it'll give us
2,500 degrees centigrade.
More than enough to melt steel.
Keith, do you wanna come
and have a look at this?
[Sibella] At the shack,
there's a major setback for the workers.
An electric cement mixer has broken.
Mixing by hand will add days to the
restoration. Time they don't have.
[man] There you go, Keith.
Time for a real mixer.
Luckily, this station
has another relic in a shed.
[Keith] Hopefully we might be able
to speed things up
with the introduction
of this dinosaur of a mixer
and get things moving again.
Go for it. Hit hard.
[metal clanging]
[Sibella] After gathering dust
for decades,
the family once again has a working smithy
and an apprentice to go with it.
You started without me!
[Luke] Hey, how are you going?
[Geoff] We weren't gonna hang about.
Have a look at the forge. Up and running.
- Beautiful.
- Was it hard to get going?
No, not once we employed
your vacuum cleaner.
- [laughing]
- Bad luck about the vacuum cleaner.
I knew there was a good reason
we were keeping it, Geoff.
[Sibella] With the forge fired up,
Geoff's main task
is to make a gate for the shack.
[Geoff] Now, have a look
at these gate designs.
These are all based on old designs
that I've seen around South Australia.
[Frances] Well, Geoff, this one
straight away appeals to me,
because it's absolutely beautiful,
and you could've guessed that,
- couldn't you?
- [chuckles] Yeah.
Because it's a little bit girly.
- It's sort of more feminine.
- Well, it's my own
- favorite as it happens.
- [laughing]
It's looking pretty incredible.
Yeah, it's a lot further along than
we expected in such a short time.
Like, these guys are just so motivated.
It looks completely different.
It looks completely different
and it looks fantastic.
[Frances] Obviously,
it's not what we're used to,
but I have a feeling we're gonna get
used to this very, very quickly.
I think so, too.
How's the cellar coming along?
You won't believe it.
The walls are absolutely beautiful.
[Frances] They've started
putting the timbers over the roof.
It just looks magical.
- There's a few flies around.
- Oh, they're shocking.
They are terrible,
but you'll get used to it.
- [both chuckling]
- I hope so.
Everybody's talking about it.
They're really bad this year.
All right, then, guys. Guys!
Can we wrap it up for today? Down tools.
Well done, lads, for today,
and another big day tomorrow.
[Sibella] After a few early setbacks,
progress has been made today,
but looking at the site now,
they've only scratched the surface.
With three days to go,
Keith and his team
have a monumental job ahead of them.
[indistinct chattering]
[Sibella] Over the next two days,
work progresses on all fronts.
At the shack,
a garden wall is taking shape.
- How's that?
- [man] That looks pretty good. Too good.
- [laughs]
- She's sacked.
- It's a diamond. [laughs]
- She's a threat to the industry.
[Sibella] Down in the cellar,
work has revealed another fascinating
snippet of Holowiliena's history.
So, we had a lovely little moment
last night, Keith.
Mom and Dad and the kids,
Luke and I all came down
to have a look at the progress
on the cellar
and we found this date
on the door jamb here.
And we think it says,
"February 27, 1876, Sunday".
We know the cellar was built in 1855,
so maybe if I look up the date
in the diary,
I might find that
they were up to something.
They might've done some work
on the cellar on that day.
- That's an excellent find.
- Yeah, it's nice, isn't it?
It's good that we're finding
these dates round the station.
[Sibella] So, when was this built?
[Frances] Well, they first arrived
here in 1852...
[Sibella] You don't have to
look far to find this station's past.
Near the homestead
are the remains of the first shelter
William Warwick built for his family
after their epic journey.
[Sibella] And what are all these names
in the rocks?
[Frances] Well, it's a bit of a tradition
to etch your name in the stone.
So, if you look up here, for example,
here's my great-grandfather's name,
R. Warwick.
So, that's Robert
and he wrote on here in 1888.
So, what generation are you?
I'm the fifth generation
and that makes my children
the sixth generation.
[Sibella] There's some
lovely handwriting here.
[Frances] Yeah, this is my
grandfather's name,
Francis Robert Warwick,
and he's written the names
of my grandmother
and their four children at the time,
who were five, three, two,
and my dad here, Richard, he was one.
- They were close in age. [chuckles]
- Yeah, yeah!
- Yes, that's right.
- Wow.
[Frances] So, that was in July, 1943.
- That's fantastic.
- Yeah, it's special, isn't it?
[Sibella] With William Warwick's forge
in full swing,
work has started on some
candle sconces for the shack.
[Geoff] Over to our special tool,
and stretch the middle as much as you can,
but work out to the edges
at the same time.
As my old Norwegian mate used to say,
"If you heat it the same
and you hammer it the same,
- they all come out the same."
- [laughing]
- That looks nice already.
- Now, do you want to strike a blow?
Yeah, I think so.
That's the shot. Now hit quickly.
- Okay. Oh, but I... Hold that.
- Oh, you're left-handed.
- Here. This way?
- That's it.
- Hard
- [man] Hard.
- Hit it like you mean it.
- [Sibella] Oops.
[man] Right in the center.
- [Sibella exclaims]
- In the center.
- I'm trying.
- [laughing]
[man] There you go.
- The pressure!
- Move gradually out to the edges.
Then you know what happens?
It goes cold on you.
- Oh, my God.
- Back in the fire again. Sorry.
- [laughing]
- Shivers! You cheated.
You made it look really easy.
- [laughs]
- Doesn't he just?
That's not cheating, that's efficiency.
That's unfair! You gave me
a false sense of security.
[machinery whirring]
[whirring stops]
[Sibella] With time ticking away,
there's yet another setback.
[man] Where's the power?
[Frances] Things are
a little bit tense at the moment.
I was just trying to help
and inadvertently put the power off.
[Luke] That could be the problem.
There's something hanging down
up there, Richard.
[Frances] I turned on a grinder
to try and help
and apparently
that was the wrong thing to do.
One thing about it...
You and I won't be fixing it.
These guys all need power to operate.
And the cook needs power
to cater for 40 people,
the cool room's running, all those things.
See what's happened down here?
[Luke] Oh, yeah, righto. That's been
pretty hot. Look, this is melted.
But hopefully within the next six hours,
we might have an electrician here.
And it's gonna be a long wait until then.
[Sibella] And another shortage
puts further pressure on the team.
- There's another problem.
- What's that?
We're running out of sand.
[man] It's gonna take me three hours
to get another load.
[man 2] Three hours? I can give you two.
It's quite a major task, this,
and yeah, it doesn't seem
to be coming together
as much as we thought it would.
I don't think we got a hope in hell
of getting this finished
by the end of the week.
I'm not coping with the flies,
to be honest with you.
No, no. Bit annoying when
you're trying to do a bit of work.
The finishing is gonna take
an awful lot of time.
So, the internal rendering.
The pointing is quite detailed
and takes a long time.
I didn't anticipate that at all.
Just gonna set us back
probably another day.
[Sibella] But they don't have
another day up their sleeve,
so it's time for everyone to get stuck in.
I've done a bit of plastering in my day...
This mixture will test my skills.
So, this is the wall
we're gonna attack this morning.
- Okay? You ready for it?
- Yeah, go.
So, you wanna get all that
onto your trowel,
and then squeeze it into the wall, okay?
- Okay.
- And that's it.
[Sibella] Should I go in there?
Anywhere there, yeah, that'll be good.
Just that spot there.
So, that's it,
and quickly put it on the wall.
- That's it.
- Oh, shivers!
[Sibella] I was right. The river sand
that's used in this mix
makes the plaster much heavier to handle.
[man] All right, shall we do it a gain?
[Sibella] Yep.
- Are you trying to even this wall out?
- Yeah, we are.
Or does it matter if it has some movement?
We want it to be wavy because that was
the nature of the original render.
I mean, it was never perfect.
These guys who built these buildings
were never trades.
Yeah. And that's the beauty of it as well.
Adds a bit of character
to the building, yeah.
- That's it. Oh!
- [laughs] Oh. Oh, no!
It's all about applying pressure
onto the wall, see?
But we can't build up in, um...
[laughs]
See? Even the professionals make mistakes.
If you left it to dry longer
between layers,
would you not have that problem?
- You wouldn't have that problem.
- Right.
But because we've got
a short amount of time,
we've got to try layer it up
as quick as we can.
- [Sibella] As quick as you can.
- Yeah.
[Sibella] Down in the cellar,
work appears to be progressing well.
So, what do you think of the... The roof?
[gasps] The detail's beautiful.
- It looks fantastic, doesn't it?
- It looks so good!
So, does the earth roof
go straight on top of those?
No, actually, we put the lime mortar
on top, which is the pug,
and then we put the soil on top
and then vegetation on top of that.
- There's lots of layers, isn't there?
- Oh, there is, yeah.
Yeah, but the vegetation actually draws
all the moisture out of the soil,
and we'll hopefully have
a water-tight cellar.
[Sibella] So there's
still a lot more to do.
[man] Oh, yeah, quite considerably.
We've got the rest of the ceiling
to put through here,
and the re-pointing
on the stonework as well.
[Sibella] That looks
really time-consuming.
[man] It is, and you know,
we're hoping to get there,
but it seems very doubtful at the moment.
You know, we've only got a couple
of days left, so...
And to do it by hand,
it would've took weeks and weeks.
[Sibella] Back at the shack,
the rush to complete the work
has resulted in another problem.
- Now, they're like that.
- So, what's the problem there, mate?
Well, the diameter of the posts here
and here, that's our problem.
So, it looks like you used
all the thinner ones for other areas.
Yeah, and we don't wanna go
in the forest again.
- What did you do that for?
- [laughs] We ran out!
We just kept using 'em and just ran out,
a nd we're down to the... To these now.
We may be able to sort of, you know,
blend them in a little bit
with the mortar in between.
- We'll see what it looks like.
- Make sure they're flush on the inside.
We'll just have to deal with the outside
- being a bit proud, that's all.
- Yeah.
I mean, in hindsight,
we should've probably, you know,
had the smaller pines at the front
and the larger ones at the back.
Yeah, well, hindsight
has 20/20 vision, doesn't it?
[Luke] Plenty of old steel
lying around here.
[Geoff] Oh, yes.
Look, raw material everywhere.
One hundred and fifty years worth
of accu mulation. Look at it, eh?
Oh, we're going to have some fun
with this.
Now, we've got to find
something for this gate.
Right. If something jumps out at
you, let me know and I'll see if...
Hey, over here. This is what
we want, more material like this.
- You want more of that?
- Look, old wagon tires.
Plenty of that lying around.
See the rounded edges,
the corrosion on the inside?
Stuff like that would be perfect.
That'll make a beautiful member
for the gate.
[Geoff] This is what we're working to,
this is our scale... Full-scale drawing.
Yep.
[Sibella] In the blacksmith shop,
Geoff is forging ahead,
making good use
of the station's scrap iron
to create a gate for the shack.
[Keith] This is the original
top of the chimney.
So, we're just starting
to cap it off. But what...
[Sibella] Despite the setbacks,
there's at last some good news.
In three days, the chimney has risen
from a pile of rocks
and is almost back to its former glory.
So, you need to load it up.
[Sibella] What about this one?
[man] Yeah, just go for it.
- Okay. Whoops.
- That's... That looks good.
No, that's good. So, we'll just
squeeze it over there.
[Sibella] Okay.
[Keith] You've got
all your course notes for tonight?
- [men] Yep.
- Okay.
[Sibella] At the end of each day,
as part of the training course,
there's a good hour or two of theory
to take in,
but looking at the tired faces,
I'm not sure how much will sink in.
Right, carpentry, traditional carpentry.
The tools have not really changed a lot.
Axes and adzes,
as you can see, we use them today.
The adze would do the larger beams, right?
Keep going.
We've got the power saws, of course.
Now we do it with the power saws.
We dress the timber...
You can even run a round log through that.
[birds chirping]
It's the final day of the course,
and Keith and his team
are under a lot of pressure.
Will they finish on time?
But just as importantly, will it
live up to the family's expectations?
[Keith] Okay, lads,
right, it's the last day today,
and we've still got an awful lot to do.
I still feel optimistic we can,
you know, we can do it.
- [laughing]
- Let's get going.
- All right, guys? Come on, then.
- [men murmur in agreement]
[Sibella]
With the cellar roof frame complete,
it's time to seal the structure
and shovel on the dirt.
This is the cheapest
and most natural form of insulation,
and there's plenty of it.
With the work well under way,
Frances has a surprise in store for me.
This is a little contraption
that my grandfather made.
I don't know if he saw it somewhere
or if he invented it,
but the story is he would
put a chop bone on the table here
and he would lay this contraption
over the top.
These little terminals here
would be attached
to a six-volt battery here...
[Sibella laughs] Oh, fantastic!
[Frances] Yeah, you can see
where this is going, can't you?
And turn it on, and there's your
electric fly zapper, so...
Oh, my gosh!
Luke says that's when kids knew
if they were told not to touch
something, they bloody well didn't.
- [both laugh]
- That's fantastic.
[Luke] Hammer.
[hammering]
[Sibella] One of the trickiest jobs
is restoring the original
Hessian ceiling in the shack,
a job Frances and Luke are tackling.
So, this piece is ready to drop.
Have you got it, Luke?
- [Luke] Yeah, no worries. Send it down.
- Yep.
Good.
So, will new sacks replace
where you've taken out the old ones
and then be lime-washed?
Yeah, so, Luke's dad, Rob, has got
some experience in bag-sewing
and he's going to help us replace
the sections that need replacing,
and then we'll just patch
where there's only small holes.
That's lucky that he's got experience
in sack-sewing.
[Frances] Yeah, well, I think a lot
of... farmers, years ago,
had to sew the wheat bags up by hand.
So, after you've done thousands
and thousands of those,
you get experience.
Yeah, lucky Rob's here.
When I was up here
tacking the Hessian on at the top,
I could see that there's a "WW"
stamped on the other side of the ceiling,
- on the underside.
- Yeah?
And that's quite exciting
because that is William Warwick.
So exciting to find, you know,
the things that are revealed...
Exactly. Little treasures like that.
Little secrets that are offered up
by the shack as we go.
Good. Ready to do the next one.
So, it can be swung around.
Remember, this one's hot for
the time being. Don't touch that.
[Sibella] A master blacksmith
makes this look easy,
but hot riveting
requires a great deal of skill.
It makes a movement-proof joint,
perfect for the shack's iron gate.
[Luke] Perfect. Nice and flush there.
Fantastic.
[Sibella] Things are happening
very quickly now.
The pace has noticeably picked up,
and dare I say it,
this restoration project
may just finish on time.
[Sibella chuckles]
So, let's have a go at the pug.
It's not as easy as they make it look.
[Frances] I'm glad
Luke's not here to see this,
'cause he'd be worried
about me wasting all this material
that he's been working on.
- His very carefully selected sand.
- Yes.
I thought this was a little darker
than I first expected,
but it dries lighter.
[Frances] It dries, actually,
a beautiful light color,
so it'll look nice with the dark pines.
[Sibella] So, what's the plan
when you decorate the inside?
- 14 bunks? [laughs]
- No, definitely not.
But... Um, I might need a bit of advice
from you on this one.
I sort of picture
a couple of beds in there,
just for people
to roll their swags out on...
Yes.
...put the billy on the fire and have
a cup of tea, light the candles.
We might need to put a cot in
for my new addition.
Oh, yeah, of course. Yep.
Would you like a vintage one?
- A vintage one would be perfect, thanks.
- Yeah.
- Sheepskin for the baby.
- That would be lovely.
I'll see what we can do. [chuckles]
[Sibella] While my night in the shack
may be some way off,
Keith and his team only have a couple
of hours left to meet their deadline.
[man] Just applying
the final coat of lime wash.
We've used Luke's slaked lime.
We used a ratio of 50% water,
50% slaked lime, mixed it up.
It's the traditional method.
Exactly how they would have done it
when they built the place.
[Sibella] With the day and the course
rapidly drawing to a close,
it's time to put the finishing touches
to this restoration.
[Sibella] So, it's almost the end of
the afternoon. Are tensions rising?
Yeah, absolutely,
and to try and keep the guys motivated
at this time of day...
Do you think they're thinking about beers?
I think they are thinking
about a good drink, absolutely.
Put it down. Yep, there we go.
There we go.
- There you go!
- [Luke] Okay!
- Shut!
- [man] Fantastic.
[Sibella] As the Hessian ceiling
is given its final coat of lime wash,
it's time to reveal the result
of four days work in the forge.
Created from scrap iron,
Geoff and Luke's gate is a work of art,
a fitting tribute
to Holowiliena's founding father,
blacksmith William Warwick.
[Geoff] So it sits perfectly
between those two posts.
We'll be able to stand back
and admire it from afar now.
I've just gotta get my feet
out of the way.
- [laughing]
- Yes. Sorry!
[man] It's pretty sweet.
Gonna be happy with that.
That's just perfect.
[metal clangs]
[Keith] Okay, guys, course is over.
Tools down.
Come on, finish up. Gather round.
[Sibella] After four days
and 1,000 man hours, time is finally up.
Todd, look here.
Look at the shack, mate. Wow.
Okay, guys, I'd like to give you
a round of applause myself
and for yourselves to give
everybody else a round of applause.
- So, well done, guys.
- Yeah, well done.
- Give them a clap, Todd.
- Well said, Keith.
[applauding]
[Keith] Beautiful job.
[Sibella] Having almost lost
the battle for survival,
this historic little pug-and-pine
shack and the cellar on the riverbank
have been given a new lease of life.
- Oh, wow!
- What do you think, eh?
- [laughs] Have a look at that!
- Doesn't it look great?
- Oh!
- Check that out.
- Unreal!
- It does have a nice feeling.
[Sibella] With the building work over,
it's now up to Frances and Luke
to breathe life into the interiors
to finish this project.
- There we go.
- Oh, wow!
- What do you think?
- Fantastic!
- [Luke] Check that out.
- That's brilliant, Keith.
That's great.
[Sibella] And given I've promised to spend
the first night in the shack,
I'm keen to see what they have in mind.
- Come in, Richard.
- It is clean, isn't it?
- What do you think, Richard?
- It's all an even color.
[band plays]
♪ Well, a boat, it leaves the harbor ♪
♪ Disappearing through the bay... ♪
[Sibella] After such a monumental effort
by so many,
what better way to say thank you
than by throwing a party?
And the Warwicks do that very well.
[people chattering indistinctly]
Hey! Cheers!
[cheering]
It's hard to believe
that a year has passed
since the heritage course at Holowiliena,
and in that time my life's changed a lot.
I've even started my own family.
[baby cooing]
[Sibella] And I'm returning
to catch up with Luke and Frances,
curious to see what progress they've made
on the shack and the cellar.
[Frances] It's still a work in progress,
but we're happy with where we are now.
[Luke] It's just come up a treat.
- Here it is, the scalp hut.
- Gate still looks beautiful.
- Yeah, wizard!
- Great, isn't it?
[Luke] Getting better with age.
Here we go. Check this out.
Oh, this is gorgeous.
Oh, we're so happy
with the way it's turned out.
We really wanted to keep it authentic.
People drop in.
They want somewhere warm and cozy,
but not five-star,
well, this is the one.
Oh, this is a better experience
than five-star, I'd say.
- [laughing]
- Yeah.
[Sibella] And what a difference.
It's a far cry from the ruin
I saw two years ago.
And I think we worked
on one of these together perhaps.
Yeah, gave you a shot at making
the cups for the candles.
I don't think I was very good at it.
Well, we've fixed it up
and look at 'em now.
[Sibella] Did you smith
these curtain rails?
Yeah, yeah, had to make something.
Frances wanted something
to hang her curtains off,
so I said, "I know a guy who can do that."
[all laugh]
[Sibella] Has the course
changed you dramatically?
[Frances] It has, actually,
and in ways that we didn't expect.
It's really cemented our role
on the station here now.
[Luke] It's given the whole family a lift,
and confidence to do things
and maintain things.
Absolutely.
It's just what we needed.
It's... Couldn't be happier with it.
So, could tourism potentially
be another income stream for you?
[Frances] Well, we think
now it could be, Sibella.
I might be able to offer people tours
and show them around,
tell them about what we've done,
and, yeah, maybe Luke can even do
some blacksmithing demonstrations.
- [Luke] Yeah.
- [laughing]
Just having the course here
and working on this project
has showed us that we can
really make things shine
and share that with people.
We're all involved
in bringing the past back to life.
It's been wonderful.
So, this is only half
the restoration project.
I'm looking forward to seeing the cellar.
Oh, yeah, we're looking forward
to showing you, too.
[Luke] Better go and have a look.
- [Frances] So, here we are.
- Oh, wow.
- Yeah.
- [chuckles]
That is exactly how you explained it!
This is so beautiful! Guys!
[Frances] Oh, we're thrilled with the way
it's come up. We are so happy.
[Sibella] After decades of neglect,
the 1850s stone cellar has been
brought back to its former glory.
[Frances] I think it's turned out
- better than we thought, actually.
- [Luke] Yeah.
[Sibella] It's beautiful!
Every time we come in here,
we get the feeling of how magical it is.
Luke made the shelves
out of red gum from Holowiliena.
[Sibella] That's a huge effort!
[Frances] It's been fun.
We've learned a lot of things.
[Sibella] And you pickled all of this?
[Frances] Yep, yep. Big team effort.
Lots of new recipes, lots of learning.
So, where's the wine?
- Oh, plenty of that stored down here.
- Out the back.
- Oh, it looks good in here, too.
- Yeah.
- Did a good job of the wine rack.
- Did you make this?
Yeah, just real mesh,
just stuck it in some red gum.
[Sibella] Oh, looks fantastic.
[Luke] Kept it simple.
Summertime it's cool and wintertime
it's warmer than outside,
so it's easy to stay down here
and have a port,
if you need one during winter.
[Frances] That moment that you walk in,
you smell the fresh pine
and you just don't want to leave.
As much as it's work,
getting this ready and preparing it,
it's still been enjoyable,
because you know the end result
is gonna be good
and it's been so much fun doing it.
- [Sibella] Well done, guys.
- [laughing]
Absolutely gorgeous.
- It's like walking back in time.
- [Frances laughs] Yeah, it is.
So, you're still keen
for a night in the shack?
- Most definitely.
- That's good. We'll go set you up.
[birds chirping]
[Sibella] It would've been
easy to overdress these buildings,
but by keeping them simple and authentic,
Frances and Luke
have preserved the essence
of their family's pioneer past,
a salute to William Warwick
and his intrepid family.
Whilst this may not be the grandest
of restorations in a physical sense,
it's so much more for this family.
The restoration of this little
pioneer cottage and the cellar
and the reinstatement
of William Warwick's blacksmith shop,
has not only helped to preserve
the unique and treasured family history,
but it's given Frances and Luke
the drive and confidence
to take this property
and the Warwick family into the future
and maybe another 160 years of history.
[baby cooing]
[theme music playing]
are at risk of being lost forever.
They're links to our past
and should be saved.
In this series, you'll meet families
facing the challenge of a lifetime.
[man grunts]
- Here we are, dumb and dumber.
- [both laugh]
Half a million dollars on this?
Are we mad?
[Sibella] They'll quickly realize
the sheer scale of the projects...
[man]
Not quite what I meant.
...as they restore these ruins
to family homes.
I'm Sibella Court.
I'm a designer, author,
lover of old houses and restoration.
I'm passionate about old buildings
and the need to save our history.
[Sibella] To succeed, our families
must learn dying heritage skills
and stick to budget.
He just likes to spend money.
Bastards, bastards, bastards.
Oh, Jo! No, don't!
It's a slow train wreck.
[Sibella] Can they rescue
their slice of Australia's history
before it's too late?
This is Restoration Australia.
This story starts in 1852.
Scottish blacksmith William Warwick,
his wife and six children
walked more than 500 kilometers
from Adelaide
for a new life as farmers
in remote South Australia.
He chose a site rich in water
and natural resources.
Using these raw materials,
this tough pioneering family
built all they needed
to survive in a harsh land.
[birds squawking]
The pastoral lease
they acquired 160 years ago
is still their family home even if,
at times, it hangs by a thread.
William Warwick's
great-great-granddaughter, Frances,
lives on the sheep station
with her husband, Luke, and her parents.
[horn honking]
They hold the record
for the longest occupation of
a grazing lease by the same family,
but drought and low wool prices
mean the family
often struggles to make a living.
Key to their future is restoring
two of the original buildings
that are falling down.
[motorcycle revving]
[woman] These days, the sheep station life
doesn't give a good enough return
for two families just to live,
let alone to put money
back into restoring buildings.
[clippers buzzing]
So, we're looking at diversifying
a little, sharing our history,
maybe opening up to tourists
to get a little bit of extra income.
[Sibella] So, can this family
restore two historic buildings
and secure its future?
Sibella, hi. Welcome to Holowiliena.
- Lovely to finally meet you.
- I'm Frances. You, too.
- Yeah, how are you?
- Hi, Luke.
[woman] And this is Todd and Stella.
So, tell me about the restoration
work you wanna do here.
Well, there's a little pine-and-pug shack
and that's an important part
of our history,
and we believe this is one
of the original buildings.
It's had several incarnations
in its day.
At one stage, it was used
as an accommodation block
for up to 14 people.
[Sibella] Because they could be
built quickly
from local materials,
these pug-and-pine shacks were crucial
to early white settlement in Australia,
but very few have survived
as intact as this one.
[Frances] We really want to keep that
and protect it,
bring it back to original condition,
but having said that, we don't know how.
The next most important building
is the cellar,
which is down in the bank of the creek.
This was built in 1855,
and that's also at the point,
if we don't do something,
that could well be lost.
[Sibella] Every remote station
had a cellar,
which was essential
for storing and preserving food.
It had red gum beams holding the roof up,
and they've rotted or been eaten out
and collapsed,
so the roof's caved in
and a wall's about to fall down.
[Sibella] Frances also wants to revive
her great-great-grandfather's
blacksmith's forge.
[Frances] The blacksmith shop
was walked out of 60 years ago,
and hasn't been touched.
So, that's a bit of a special one.
It would be really nice
to get that up and going again.
- You want to spark it up? [laughs]
- Yeah, right.
I'd like to, but who's gonna
teach me to blacksmith out here?
So, do you have a budget,
- and do you guys have...
- [Frances laughing]
...a skill-set that'll help it?
Uh, not much of either, but keen to learn
and got the heart and the willingness.
So, that's a good start, I suppose.
So, I'd love to have a look around
and have a sticky beak.
- We're excited to show you.
- Yeah, we'd love to show you.
[Sibella] There are clues
to Holowiliena's history
all over this property.
Come and have a look in here,
Sibella. You'll like this.
So, this is the station store,
Sibella, so...
This is incredible!
Yeah, I've been excited
about showing you this, actually.
- I thought you might like it.
- [Sibella] This is my kind of collecting.
[Frances] We've got all the ledgers here
of records of people coming in
and collecting things from the storeroom,
whether it was tea or sugar.
Lots of tobacco. Everybody smoked.
Actually, there's something I'd like
to show you that is pretty special.
You can see it's got
"R. Warwick" on there...
- Yeah.
- ...and "1907".
This is my great-grandfather's
traveling sewing kit.
So, if this could tell stories...
Oh, isn't it lovely?
Can I open one of these?
Absolutely.
I think everything's still in there.
It's so sweetly made. Buttons.
[Frances] My great-grandfather
traveled around the place
and worked at different stations.
If your button fell off, you couldn't wait
for someone else to sew it back on...
- No!
- ...if you were out at camp.
- You just had to get on with it.
- [Sibella] That's so lovely to have.
- It's pretty special, isn't it?
- Yeah.
[projector whirs]
[all exclaim]
[Frances] Horses.
[woman] He's going to check its teeth.
[Frances] What's happening now?
I've had a great day meeting the family,
but I just don't know
how they're going to get
this project off the ground.
They don't have any budget and
not many heritage skills to speak of,
and also they've gotta run
this sheep station at the same time.
[Sibella] But Frances is very determined
and she might just find a way.
[man] Oh, cut!
[Sibella] And two weeks later,
Frances strikes it lucky.
In Adelaide, she's found
English craftsman Keith McAllister.
He teaches tradesmen
how to save old buildings
and is always looking
for on-the-job training.
Could Holowiliena be a match made
in restoration heaven?
- Hi. How's it going?
- [Frances] G'day, Keith. How you going?
- [Luke] How you going?
- You must be Luke.
- Yeah. Must be Keith.
- Hello, Luke. Keith.
[Frances] So, this is the shack...
[Sibella] If Keith thinks Holowiliena
has buildings suited to training,
he might be able
to offer the family a lifeline.
[Keith] So, this is a pug-and-pine
constructed building.
These buildings are really rare.
It's made of native pines,
and the pug
is actually lime mortar and sand.
It's interesting to see the render.
[Sibella] My grandfather put that on
in the 1940s,
so that's certainly not original.
Oh, wow! This is amazing.
[Keith] Straight away,
I got this Hessian bag ceiling in here
which is pretty unique as well.
Very few properties in Australia
have got this detail.
Oh, right.
[Sibella] It's a good start,
but will Keith share the same enthusiasm
for the rest of the project?
So, this is the blacksmith shop, Keith.
Co me in and have a look.
So, I've had a bit of an idea
about using
the blacksmith shop here as well
and potentially maybe make a little
gate or something for the shack.
That's my ideal dream.
[Sibella] Finding someone to reinvigorate
this forge is important.
Luke is keen to learn
the old blacksmith skills
to help save the buildings.
Well, it's a great opportunity
to actually make something
which is gonna be useful to the property.
[indistinct chattering]
[Sibella] The other major part
of this restoration
is the 1850s stone cellar,
but will this be too much of
a challenge for Keith's students?
[Frances] So, this is the other part
of th e project, Keith. This is the cellar.
[Sibella] As well as food, ammunition
and explosives were stored in cellars.
We think this cellar was probably built
when the first homestead was built here.
So, that was before 1855
and used for food storage
in those very early days.
[Frances] There's also actually
still remaining bits of food
in the back-room of the cellar.
- Okay. Is that right?
- It's still in its natural state.
We didn't know what was gonna be in here,
but have a look, and it's...
just full of rock salt,
which would have been used
for salting down meat.
[Keith] That's a fantastic find.
It's probably one of the best
cellars I've seen on stations
or in these remote areas.
[Sibella] The tour over,
it's now decision time for Keith.
So, what do you reckon, Keith?
Do you think you're gonna be able
to help us out with this?
Well, you know,
with the history of the place
and you know, what I've seen
to date, I'm really satisfied
and feel confident that
we can do something for you.
- It's a goer for me.
- Great!
But there is some preparation work.
Are you going to be okay with that?
Oh, we'll do anything
to make this happen. [laughs]
[Keith] Well done, mate.
[Luke] Beauty!
- How good is that?
- Brilliant! Whoo-hoo!
[both chuckle]
[Luke] The property boundary comes in...
[Sibella] This is great news.
Keith will bring 20 tradies,
saving Frances and Luke
around $50,000 in wages
because it's part of
an industry-funded training scheme.
But is four days really enough
to get the job done?
[indistinct talking]
- [birds squawking]
- [animals chittering]
[chainsaw buzzing]
[Sibella] Keith has given Frances and Luke
a long list of work to do,
but with the help of family and friends,
timbers for the shack are cut...
That's pretty good, eh?
...the stone wall in the cellar rebuilt,
and new roof beams installed.
Then there's the preparation work
on the shack,
but the biggest challenge is firing
up the station's old lime kiln
to make the lime mortar
for the restoration.
Right now,
no-one's sure exactly how it works.
There's a good bit down here, Todd.
Do you think this is the right stone?
Yeah, it looks like it to me.
It's probably the best I can find...
[Sibella] Most lime mortar is imported
and is very expensive.
If Luke and Frances can make their
own, it will be a huge cash saving.
But can they do it using the same
method as their ancestors?
[Frances] There are diary entries here
that my grandfather wrote in the 1940s.
He wrote then about
how it was done in the old days,
and I can't see why we can't do it now.
Is this load number...
- Four loads should cover it.
- ...four?
[Frances] That's about
the last of the Mal lee.
[Luke] Yeah, that'll do.
[Luke] There's not much
record of how they fired it
or what size timber or stone they used.
We asked a lot of people in the
district what they know about it.
People knew of lime kilns
and knew it had been done,
but never really knew the process.
So, it was pretty much just a guess.
Righto, this kiln's pretty full.
- [Frances] Yep.
- I'm ready for those bones, Frances.
[Sibella] With the kiln loaded
with stone and wood,
it's time to add a special ingredient.
Get set! Go!
[Luke] Oh, well done!
[Frances] Oh!
Dad says when they burned lime years ago,
they put bones in the kiln then.
[Luke] It makes sense, that.
It's all made of calcium, so...
- Yeah, absolutely.
- ...they should burn down all right.
- Right.
- [Frances] Here we go.
- [Luke] Let's burn it.
- Okay, go.
[Frances] Lighting the kiln
was quite a big event.
- It's in there.
- Is it going?
Yeah, it's still light.
[Frances] Little bit of smoke out the top.
- [Luke] That's a good sign.
- [Frances chuckles]
[motor whirs]
It looks like walking in clouds,
doesn't it?
You think you could walk across that.
Look at that, Luke. Isn't it beautiful?
[Luke] Oh, wow!
- Now she's crackling away.
- [Frances] Hear it? Yeah.
[Luke] Once the smoke
started coming through
and you could hear
the rumble underneath...
- [Frances] Crackle, crackle.
- ...it was almost, like,
stand back and watch.
That's gotta look pretty good
tonight in the dark.
[fire crackling]
[birds chirping]
- [Luke] Oh, wow!
- [both chuckle]
That's burned down
a fair bit in 15 hours, hasn't it?
- Look how the level's dropped.
- Still red-hot there.
[Luke] I might just fish a rock out,
if I can get to it.
[Frances] I think Keith will be
really pleased
that we gave it a go.
[Sibella] It's taken a long time,
so hopefully they've pulled this off.
Oh, look at that! Check that out!
Well, let's see
if it's all been worthwhile, eh?
[laughs] A lot of work,
so this is the test.
This is the test.
[Sibella] If it works,
adding water will eventually turn
the cooked stone into lime putty.
[Frances] That's what we were after.
[Luke] Whoa. Check that out.
Look at that! It's just falling apart.
[Frances] Now we understand the process,
we've sort of taken that step back
in time, felt what it was like
and done it ourselves, and that's
quite special, quite unique.
Here we go. There's the lime.
[Sibella] This lime putty
is the key ingredient
in the restoration of Holowiliena
and can be used in mortar,
render, and whitewash.
After the successful lime burn,
Frances and Luke want to dig deeper
into their history,
keen for the restoration
to honor the past.
The station records are kept in
the land titles office in Adelaide.
[Frances] Oh, wow! [chuckles]
[Luke] Here you go. Look at that.
[Sibella] Here they find beautifully
illustrated field books,
produced by the surveyor
Alexander Woodroffe Goyder in 1888
to assess properties for land tax.
And then they've got lovely little
diagrams of some of the buildings.
Oh, wow!
[Sibella] At that time,
the pug-and-pine shack stored dingo skins
and was known as the "scalp hut".
[Luke] Oh, scalp hut. Here we go.
[Frances] Yep.
That's what we're after. What's it say?
[Frances] "Roof, good. Iron, good.
Floor, slate, go od.
Four small windows, one door..."
- Well, that matches the hut.
- Yeah, that's it.
[Sibella] For a glimpse of the future,
I'm meeting Frances and Luke
at a restored pug-and-pine shack
in the Flinders Ranges National Park.
It's similar to Holowiliena
and could give Frances and Luke an idea
of what their cottage
may eventually look like.
So, is this your inspiration?
[Luke] Sure is. Be good if ours
could look like that.
- [Sibella] Was this a ruin?
- It was, totally.
Yeah, they rebuilt it with volunteers.
[Sibella] So, this took three years,
and you guys have got four days.
[Luke] Well, Keith's hoping,
once the render comes off,
that we've just got to replace
some of the rotted pines.
So, that'll create less work for us,
instead of a total rebuild.
Let's go have a look, eh?
[door clicks open]
Oh, they've done a lovely job in here.
- Check this out.
- Wow. It's nice, isn't it?
Got a nice feeling, hasn't it?
[Sibella] Are you hoping
to do something like this?
[Frances] Yeah, I think so.
Like, the same sort of feel,
but maybe a bit cosier
so that people
could actually sleep in there.
[Sibella] Not so breezy?
[Luke] Mmm.
[all chuckle]
Render the walls, perhaps, and
a couple of beds and a usable space.
[Sibella] Back at Holowiliena,
the optimism doesn't last long.
Behind the render is a major problem.
Most of the old pine logs are rotten,
and adding to the stress,
Keith has returned
to check on their progress.
[Keith] So, I can see a lot
of the timbers are exposed now
and there's been a lot of deterioration.
I guess we'd have to replace
the whole of these pines here,
by the looks of it.
[Luke] Not all the pines in the building?
[Keith] Yeah, I think definitely 100%.
You know, we're talking about
total replacement,
- aren't we now?
- [Luke] Yeah.
- You okay with that?
- Yeah, um...
have to do a fair bit of work
in a matter of a couple of weeks, um...
- Yeah.
- [Frances] On the other side of that,
you're effectively demolishing
the building that we've got
and building a new building.
[Keith] And that's a fair point as well.
[Frances] That's not what
we started out to do.
[Sibella] It's a blow.
It means Luke must cut dozens more pines.
It also raises some serious concerns
about how much of the shack's
character will be lost.
[Luke] Well, this is what we've done
since you were here last.
[Sibella] Luke has made some progress
on the cellar,
but is it enough for Keith and his
team to start work in just two weeks?
- How long did this take?
- Oh, a couple of days.
Did the wall. Two men. Me and my mate.
So, looks like you've dismantled
this wall from the footing
and rebuilt it, which is good.
[Keith] So, it's made it more stable.
And traditional lime mortar.
- Yeah, the stuff we burned.
- Yeah.
So that worked out good.
It was good to work with.
[Keith] Just when you touch it,
it just feels... It feels good.
Done a really excellent job. Well done.
You put these bearers in.
Quite substantial timbers as well.
So, how did you get 'em in?
If I told you I put them by hand,
I'd be lying, wouldn't I?
- [both chuckle]
- You would, too.
[Sibella] Fortunately,
the cellar is in good shape,
but the same cannot be said for the shack.
So, Keith's been up
for his last visit before the big week.
- Mmm.
- How do you feel about it?
We were quite happy with where
we were at prior to his arrival.
We've done everything
we've been asked to do
and happy with the results,
and it's looking pretty good,
but we were a bit taken aback
when he told us
we'd need to rebuild this building.
[Luke] We weren't expecting that, were we?
- [Frances] No, we sure weren't.
- We can do it,
but it was just
a bit of a rude shock at the time.
[horn blares]
[Sibella] The big day has finally arrived.
Keith and a convoy of 20 tradesmen
are on their way to Holowiliena
in South Australia's
remote Flinders Ranges.
Can they restore a slice
of Australia's pioneering history
in just four days?
[horn blares]
Here they come! Oh, wow, look
at that little yellow one.
[laughs] Oh! What is it? A Morris?
[Sibella] Keith has a surprise
for the Warwicks.
He's brought along Geoff Barnes,
a master blacksmith from Adelaide,
to revive the old forge
and teach Luke
some traditional smithing skills.
- [Luke] Geoff, how are you going?
- Good, mate. Oof!
Go and say hello to Geoff.
- Welcome to Holowiliena.
- It's been a long drive.
- [laughing]
- Hello! You must be Todd.
[Sibella] Tradesmen are scarce when
you live 500 km from a major city,
so this is a special moment
for the family.
- William.
- William?
Lovely to meet you, William. I'm Frances.
[Sibella] It's day one
of the restoration project
and a defining moment
for Holowiliena Station.
[thunder rumbles]
[Keith] Okay, guys, listen up.
You can see the extensive work we've
gotta do on the scalp hut behind me,
and you passed the cellar down there.
We've got to try and complete this
in four days, all right?
If it rains, you know,
us Poms will obviously work through,
but you Australians
will obviously take cover.
- [all laughing]
- Right, so,
- have a good week, guys.
- [man] Let's go.
[grunts]
[Sibella] Four teams of five builders
will tackle the restoration.
Two on carpentry and timber,
two on stone masonry and rendering.
[drilling]
Frances and Luke should be excited,
but they're still worried about
how much of the past will be lost.
[Frances] We still don't know
how it's going to look.
We've always known it as a building
that's been completely rendered.
I guess we're all a little bit nervous
as to how that's going to fit
with how we know Holowiliena.
We've made it a decision now,
so we're happy to roll with it...
- [Frances] We are.
- ...and we trust you'll do a good job.
Listen, I think at the end of today
you're gonna be happy
with what we've achieved,
and it'll give you an insight
to what's gonna be achieved
by the end of the week as well.
[indistinct talking]
[Sibella] Just like the early settlers,
the workers are using key materials
from the property,
but power tools
will shave weeks off the time
it took William Warwick
to get the job done.
[tools whirring]
Fair bit of action.
The boys are straight into it.
[Frances] It's definitely
a big, exciting day for us.
I mean, just to have this number
of people here is one thing,
but to have all the action as well
is super exciting.
[chainsaw revving]
[Luke] This is the Holowiliena forge.
[Sibella] Luke is very keen
to carry on the tradition
of the first blacksmith of Holowiliena,
William Warwick,
and to hand those skills
on to the next generation.
Now, the question is
will the bellows work?
Master blacksmith Geoff Barnes's
task is to bring it back to life.
I'm a bit concerned about this hole.
Ah! Yes, yes.
What are we going to do about that?
We might not be able to fire this up
quite as easily as what we'd hoped.
[Sibella] But buried in a shed
is something that could save the day.
This dusty vacuum cleaner
might provide enough air
to replace the broken bellows.
[vacuum cleaner drones]
I think we've got it, Luke.
After 50 years,
we've got fire in the hearth again.
[Geoff] Get some air on it, it'll give us
2,500 degrees centigrade.
More than enough to melt steel.
Keith, do you wanna come
and have a look at this?
[Sibella] At the shack,
there's a major setback for the workers.
An electric cement mixer has broken.
Mixing by hand will add days to the
restoration. Time they don't have.
[man] There you go, Keith.
Time for a real mixer.
Luckily, this station
has another relic in a shed.
[Keith] Hopefully we might be able
to speed things up
with the introduction
of this dinosaur of a mixer
and get things moving again.
Go for it. Hit hard.
[metal clanging]
[Sibella] After gathering dust
for decades,
the family once again has a working smithy
and an apprentice to go with it.
You started without me!
[Luke] Hey, how are you going?
[Geoff] We weren't gonna hang about.
Have a look at the forge. Up and running.
- Beautiful.
- Was it hard to get going?
No, not once we employed
your vacuum cleaner.
- [laughing]
- Bad luck about the vacuum cleaner.
I knew there was a good reason
we were keeping it, Geoff.
[Sibella] With the forge fired up,
Geoff's main task
is to make a gate for the shack.
[Geoff] Now, have a look
at these gate designs.
These are all based on old designs
that I've seen around South Australia.
[Frances] Well, Geoff, this one
straight away appeals to me,
because it's absolutely beautiful,
and you could've guessed that,
- couldn't you?
- [chuckles] Yeah.
Because it's a little bit girly.
- It's sort of more feminine.
- Well, it's my own
- favorite as it happens.
- [laughing]
It's looking pretty incredible.
Yeah, it's a lot further along than
we expected in such a short time.
Like, these guys are just so motivated.
It looks completely different.
It looks completely different
and it looks fantastic.
[Frances] Obviously,
it's not what we're used to,
but I have a feeling we're gonna get
used to this very, very quickly.
I think so, too.
How's the cellar coming along?
You won't believe it.
The walls are absolutely beautiful.
[Frances] They've started
putting the timbers over the roof.
It just looks magical.
- There's a few flies around.
- Oh, they're shocking.
They are terrible,
but you'll get used to it.
- [both chuckling]
- I hope so.
Everybody's talking about it.
They're really bad this year.
All right, then, guys. Guys!
Can we wrap it up for today? Down tools.
Well done, lads, for today,
and another big day tomorrow.
[Sibella] After a few early setbacks,
progress has been made today,
but looking at the site now,
they've only scratched the surface.
With three days to go,
Keith and his team
have a monumental job ahead of them.
[indistinct chattering]
[Sibella] Over the next two days,
work progresses on all fronts.
At the shack,
a garden wall is taking shape.
- How's that?
- [man] That looks pretty good. Too good.
- [laughs]
- She's sacked.
- It's a diamond. [laughs]
- She's a threat to the industry.
[Sibella] Down in the cellar,
work has revealed another fascinating
snippet of Holowiliena's history.
So, we had a lovely little moment
last night, Keith.
Mom and Dad and the kids,
Luke and I all came down
to have a look at the progress
on the cellar
and we found this date
on the door jamb here.
And we think it says,
"February 27, 1876, Sunday".
We know the cellar was built in 1855,
so maybe if I look up the date
in the diary,
I might find that
they were up to something.
They might've done some work
on the cellar on that day.
- That's an excellent find.
- Yeah, it's nice, isn't it?
It's good that we're finding
these dates round the station.
[Sibella] So, when was this built?
[Frances] Well, they first arrived
here in 1852...
[Sibella] You don't have to
look far to find this station's past.
Near the homestead
are the remains of the first shelter
William Warwick built for his family
after their epic journey.
[Sibella] And what are all these names
in the rocks?
[Frances] Well, it's a bit of a tradition
to etch your name in the stone.
So, if you look up here, for example,
here's my great-grandfather's name,
R. Warwick.
So, that's Robert
and he wrote on here in 1888.
So, what generation are you?
I'm the fifth generation
and that makes my children
the sixth generation.
[Sibella] There's some
lovely handwriting here.
[Frances] Yeah, this is my
grandfather's name,
Francis Robert Warwick,
and he's written the names
of my grandmother
and their four children at the time,
who were five, three, two,
and my dad here, Richard, he was one.
- They were close in age. [chuckles]
- Yeah, yeah!
- Yes, that's right.
- Wow.
[Frances] So, that was in July, 1943.
- That's fantastic.
- Yeah, it's special, isn't it?
[Sibella] With William Warwick's forge
in full swing,
work has started on some
candle sconces for the shack.
[Geoff] Over to our special tool,
and stretch the middle as much as you can,
but work out to the edges
at the same time.
As my old Norwegian mate used to say,
"If you heat it the same
and you hammer it the same,
- they all come out the same."
- [laughing]
- That looks nice already.
- Now, do you want to strike a blow?
Yeah, I think so.
That's the shot. Now hit quickly.
- Okay. Oh, but I... Hold that.
- Oh, you're left-handed.
- Here. This way?
- That's it.
- Hard
- [man] Hard.
- Hit it like you mean it.
- [Sibella] Oops.
[man] Right in the center.
- [Sibella exclaims]
- In the center.
- I'm trying.
- [laughing]
[man] There you go.
- The pressure!
- Move gradually out to the edges.
Then you know what happens?
It goes cold on you.
- Oh, my God.
- Back in the fire again. Sorry.
- [laughing]
- Shivers! You cheated.
You made it look really easy.
- [laughs]
- Doesn't he just?
That's not cheating, that's efficiency.
That's unfair! You gave me
a false sense of security.
[machinery whirring]
[whirring stops]
[Sibella] With time ticking away,
there's yet another setback.
[man] Where's the power?
[Frances] Things are
a little bit tense at the moment.
I was just trying to help
and inadvertently put the power off.
[Luke] That could be the problem.
There's something hanging down
up there, Richard.
[Frances] I turned on a grinder
to try and help
and apparently
that was the wrong thing to do.
One thing about it...
You and I won't be fixing it.
These guys all need power to operate.
And the cook needs power
to cater for 40 people,
the cool room's running, all those things.
See what's happened down here?
[Luke] Oh, yeah, righto. That's been
pretty hot. Look, this is melted.
But hopefully within the next six hours,
we might have an electrician here.
And it's gonna be a long wait until then.
[Sibella] And another shortage
puts further pressure on the team.
- There's another problem.
- What's that?
We're running out of sand.
[man] It's gonna take me three hours
to get another load.
[man 2] Three hours? I can give you two.
It's quite a major task, this,
and yeah, it doesn't seem
to be coming together
as much as we thought it would.
I don't think we got a hope in hell
of getting this finished
by the end of the week.
I'm not coping with the flies,
to be honest with you.
No, no. Bit annoying when
you're trying to do a bit of work.
The finishing is gonna take
an awful lot of time.
So, the internal rendering.
The pointing is quite detailed
and takes a long time.
I didn't anticipate that at all.
Just gonna set us back
probably another day.
[Sibella] But they don't have
another day up their sleeve,
so it's time for everyone to get stuck in.
I've done a bit of plastering in my day...
This mixture will test my skills.
So, this is the wall
we're gonna attack this morning.
- Okay? You ready for it?
- Yeah, go.
So, you wanna get all that
onto your trowel,
and then squeeze it into the wall, okay?
- Okay.
- And that's it.
[Sibella] Should I go in there?
Anywhere there, yeah, that'll be good.
Just that spot there.
So, that's it,
and quickly put it on the wall.
- That's it.
- Oh, shivers!
[Sibella] I was right. The river sand
that's used in this mix
makes the plaster much heavier to handle.
[man] All right, shall we do it a gain?
[Sibella] Yep.
- Are you trying to even this wall out?
- Yeah, we are.
Or does it matter if it has some movement?
We want it to be wavy because that was
the nature of the original render.
I mean, it was never perfect.
These guys who built these buildings
were never trades.
Yeah. And that's the beauty of it as well.
Adds a bit of character
to the building, yeah.
- That's it. Oh!
- [laughs] Oh. Oh, no!
It's all about applying pressure
onto the wall, see?
But we can't build up in, um...
[laughs]
See? Even the professionals make mistakes.
If you left it to dry longer
between layers,
would you not have that problem?
- You wouldn't have that problem.
- Right.
But because we've got
a short amount of time,
we've got to try layer it up
as quick as we can.
- [Sibella] As quick as you can.
- Yeah.
[Sibella] Down in the cellar,
work appears to be progressing well.
So, what do you think of the... The roof?
[gasps] The detail's beautiful.
- It looks fantastic, doesn't it?
- It looks so good!
So, does the earth roof
go straight on top of those?
No, actually, we put the lime mortar
on top, which is the pug,
and then we put the soil on top
and then vegetation on top of that.
- There's lots of layers, isn't there?
- Oh, there is, yeah.
Yeah, but the vegetation actually draws
all the moisture out of the soil,
and we'll hopefully have
a water-tight cellar.
[Sibella] So there's
still a lot more to do.
[man] Oh, yeah, quite considerably.
We've got the rest of the ceiling
to put through here,
and the re-pointing
on the stonework as well.
[Sibella] That looks
really time-consuming.
[man] It is, and you know,
we're hoping to get there,
but it seems very doubtful at the moment.
You know, we've only got a couple
of days left, so...
And to do it by hand,
it would've took weeks and weeks.
[Sibella] Back at the shack,
the rush to complete the work
has resulted in another problem.
- Now, they're like that.
- So, what's the problem there, mate?
Well, the diameter of the posts here
and here, that's our problem.
So, it looks like you used
all the thinner ones for other areas.
Yeah, and we don't wanna go
in the forest again.
- What did you do that for?
- [laughs] We ran out!
We just kept using 'em and just ran out,
a nd we're down to the... To these now.
We may be able to sort of, you know,
blend them in a little bit
with the mortar in between.
- We'll see what it looks like.
- Make sure they're flush on the inside.
We'll just have to deal with the outside
- being a bit proud, that's all.
- Yeah.
I mean, in hindsight,
we should've probably, you know,
had the smaller pines at the front
and the larger ones at the back.
Yeah, well, hindsight
has 20/20 vision, doesn't it?
[Luke] Plenty of old steel
lying around here.
[Geoff] Oh, yes.
Look, raw material everywhere.
One hundred and fifty years worth
of accu mulation. Look at it, eh?
Oh, we're going to have some fun
with this.
Now, we've got to find
something for this gate.
Right. If something jumps out at
you, let me know and I'll see if...
Hey, over here. This is what
we want, more material like this.
- You want more of that?
- Look, old wagon tires.
Plenty of that lying around.
See the rounded edges,
the corrosion on the inside?
Stuff like that would be perfect.
That'll make a beautiful member
for the gate.
[Geoff] This is what we're working to,
this is our scale... Full-scale drawing.
Yep.
[Sibella] In the blacksmith shop,
Geoff is forging ahead,
making good use
of the station's scrap iron
to create a gate for the shack.
[Keith] This is the original
top of the chimney.
So, we're just starting
to cap it off. But what...
[Sibella] Despite the setbacks,
there's at last some good news.
In three days, the chimney has risen
from a pile of rocks
and is almost back to its former glory.
So, you need to load it up.
[Sibella] What about this one?
[man] Yeah, just go for it.
- Okay. Whoops.
- That's... That looks good.
No, that's good. So, we'll just
squeeze it over there.
[Sibella] Okay.
[Keith] You've got
all your course notes for tonight?
- [men] Yep.
- Okay.
[Sibella] At the end of each day,
as part of the training course,
there's a good hour or two of theory
to take in,
but looking at the tired faces,
I'm not sure how much will sink in.
Right, carpentry, traditional carpentry.
The tools have not really changed a lot.
Axes and adzes,
as you can see, we use them today.
The adze would do the larger beams, right?
Keep going.
We've got the power saws, of course.
Now we do it with the power saws.
We dress the timber...
You can even run a round log through that.
[birds chirping]
It's the final day of the course,
and Keith and his team
are under a lot of pressure.
Will they finish on time?
But just as importantly, will it
live up to the family's expectations?
[Keith] Okay, lads,
right, it's the last day today,
and we've still got an awful lot to do.
I still feel optimistic we can,
you know, we can do it.
- [laughing]
- Let's get going.
- All right, guys? Come on, then.
- [men murmur in agreement]
[Sibella]
With the cellar roof frame complete,
it's time to seal the structure
and shovel on the dirt.
This is the cheapest
and most natural form of insulation,
and there's plenty of it.
With the work well under way,
Frances has a surprise in store for me.
This is a little contraption
that my grandfather made.
I don't know if he saw it somewhere
or if he invented it,
but the story is he would
put a chop bone on the table here
and he would lay this contraption
over the top.
These little terminals here
would be attached
to a six-volt battery here...
[Sibella laughs] Oh, fantastic!
[Frances] Yeah, you can see
where this is going, can't you?
And turn it on, and there's your
electric fly zapper, so...
Oh, my gosh!
Luke says that's when kids knew
if they were told not to touch
something, they bloody well didn't.
- [both laugh]
- That's fantastic.
[Luke] Hammer.
[hammering]
[Sibella] One of the trickiest jobs
is restoring the original
Hessian ceiling in the shack,
a job Frances and Luke are tackling.
So, this piece is ready to drop.
Have you got it, Luke?
- [Luke] Yeah, no worries. Send it down.
- Yep.
Good.
So, will new sacks replace
where you've taken out the old ones
and then be lime-washed?
Yeah, so, Luke's dad, Rob, has got
some experience in bag-sewing
and he's going to help us replace
the sections that need replacing,
and then we'll just patch
where there's only small holes.
That's lucky that he's got experience
in sack-sewing.
[Frances] Yeah, well, I think a lot
of... farmers, years ago,
had to sew the wheat bags up by hand.
So, after you've done thousands
and thousands of those,
you get experience.
Yeah, lucky Rob's here.
When I was up here
tacking the Hessian on at the top,
I could see that there's a "WW"
stamped on the other side of the ceiling,
- on the underside.
- Yeah?
And that's quite exciting
because that is William Warwick.
So exciting to find, you know,
the things that are revealed...
Exactly. Little treasures like that.
Little secrets that are offered up
by the shack as we go.
Good. Ready to do the next one.
So, it can be swung around.
Remember, this one's hot for
the time being. Don't touch that.
[Sibella] A master blacksmith
makes this look easy,
but hot riveting
requires a great deal of skill.
It makes a movement-proof joint,
perfect for the shack's iron gate.
[Luke] Perfect. Nice and flush there.
Fantastic.
[Sibella] Things are happening
very quickly now.
The pace has noticeably picked up,
and dare I say it,
this restoration project
may just finish on time.
[Sibella chuckles]
So, let's have a go at the pug.
It's not as easy as they make it look.
[Frances] I'm glad
Luke's not here to see this,
'cause he'd be worried
about me wasting all this material
that he's been working on.
- His very carefully selected sand.
- Yes.
I thought this was a little darker
than I first expected,
but it dries lighter.
[Frances] It dries, actually,
a beautiful light color,
so it'll look nice with the dark pines.
[Sibella] So, what's the plan
when you decorate the inside?
- 14 bunks? [laughs]
- No, definitely not.
But... Um, I might need a bit of advice
from you on this one.
I sort of picture
a couple of beds in there,
just for people
to roll their swags out on...
Yes.
...put the billy on the fire and have
a cup of tea, light the candles.
We might need to put a cot in
for my new addition.
Oh, yeah, of course. Yep.
Would you like a vintage one?
- A vintage one would be perfect, thanks.
- Yeah.
- Sheepskin for the baby.
- That would be lovely.
I'll see what we can do. [chuckles]
[Sibella] While my night in the shack
may be some way off,
Keith and his team only have a couple
of hours left to meet their deadline.
[man] Just applying
the final coat of lime wash.
We've used Luke's slaked lime.
We used a ratio of 50% water,
50% slaked lime, mixed it up.
It's the traditional method.
Exactly how they would have done it
when they built the place.
[Sibella] With the day and the course
rapidly drawing to a close,
it's time to put the finishing touches
to this restoration.
[Sibella] So, it's almost the end of
the afternoon. Are tensions rising?
Yeah, absolutely,
and to try and keep the guys motivated
at this time of day...
Do you think they're thinking about beers?
I think they are thinking
about a good drink, absolutely.
Put it down. Yep, there we go.
There we go.
- There you go!
- [Luke] Okay!
- Shut!
- [man] Fantastic.
[Sibella] As the Hessian ceiling
is given its final coat of lime wash,
it's time to reveal the result
of four days work in the forge.
Created from scrap iron,
Geoff and Luke's gate is a work of art,
a fitting tribute
to Holowiliena's founding father,
blacksmith William Warwick.
[Geoff] So it sits perfectly
between those two posts.
We'll be able to stand back
and admire it from afar now.
I've just gotta get my feet
out of the way.
- [laughing]
- Yes. Sorry!
[man] It's pretty sweet.
Gonna be happy with that.
That's just perfect.
[metal clangs]
[Keith] Okay, guys, course is over.
Tools down.
Come on, finish up. Gather round.
[Sibella] After four days
and 1,000 man hours, time is finally up.
Todd, look here.
Look at the shack, mate. Wow.
Okay, guys, I'd like to give you
a round of applause myself
and for yourselves to give
everybody else a round of applause.
- So, well done, guys.
- Yeah, well done.
- Give them a clap, Todd.
- Well said, Keith.
[applauding]
[Keith] Beautiful job.
[Sibella] Having almost lost
the battle for survival,
this historic little pug-and-pine
shack and the cellar on the riverbank
have been given a new lease of life.
- Oh, wow!
- What do you think, eh?
- [laughs] Have a look at that!
- Doesn't it look great?
- Oh!
- Check that out.
- Unreal!
- It does have a nice feeling.
[Sibella] With the building work over,
it's now up to Frances and Luke
to breathe life into the interiors
to finish this project.
- There we go.
- Oh, wow!
- What do you think?
- Fantastic!
- [Luke] Check that out.
- That's brilliant, Keith.
That's great.
[Sibella] And given I've promised to spend
the first night in the shack,
I'm keen to see what they have in mind.
- Come in, Richard.
- It is clean, isn't it?
- What do you think, Richard?
- It's all an even color.
[band plays]
♪ Well, a boat, it leaves the harbor ♪
♪ Disappearing through the bay... ♪
[Sibella] After such a monumental effort
by so many,
what better way to say thank you
than by throwing a party?
And the Warwicks do that very well.
[people chattering indistinctly]
Hey! Cheers!
[cheering]
It's hard to believe
that a year has passed
since the heritage course at Holowiliena,
and in that time my life's changed a lot.
I've even started my own family.
[baby cooing]
[Sibella] And I'm returning
to catch up with Luke and Frances,
curious to see what progress they've made
on the shack and the cellar.
[Frances] It's still a work in progress,
but we're happy with where we are now.
[Luke] It's just come up a treat.
- Here it is, the scalp hut.
- Gate still looks beautiful.
- Yeah, wizard!
- Great, isn't it?
[Luke] Getting better with age.
Here we go. Check this out.
Oh, this is gorgeous.
Oh, we're so happy
with the way it's turned out.
We really wanted to keep it authentic.
People drop in.
They want somewhere warm and cozy,
but not five-star,
well, this is the one.
Oh, this is a better experience
than five-star, I'd say.
- [laughing]
- Yeah.
[Sibella] And what a difference.
It's a far cry from the ruin
I saw two years ago.
And I think we worked
on one of these together perhaps.
Yeah, gave you a shot at making
the cups for the candles.
I don't think I was very good at it.
Well, we've fixed it up
and look at 'em now.
[Sibella] Did you smith
these curtain rails?
Yeah, yeah, had to make something.
Frances wanted something
to hang her curtains off,
so I said, "I know a guy who can do that."
[all laugh]
[Sibella] Has the course
changed you dramatically?
[Frances] It has, actually,
and in ways that we didn't expect.
It's really cemented our role
on the station here now.
[Luke] It's given the whole family a lift,
and confidence to do things
and maintain things.
Absolutely.
It's just what we needed.
It's... Couldn't be happier with it.
So, could tourism potentially
be another income stream for you?
[Frances] Well, we think
now it could be, Sibella.
I might be able to offer people tours
and show them around,
tell them about what we've done,
and, yeah, maybe Luke can even do
some blacksmithing demonstrations.
- [Luke] Yeah.
- [laughing]
Just having the course here
and working on this project
has showed us that we can
really make things shine
and share that with people.
We're all involved
in bringing the past back to life.
It's been wonderful.
So, this is only half
the restoration project.
I'm looking forward to seeing the cellar.
Oh, yeah, we're looking forward
to showing you, too.
[Luke] Better go and have a look.
- [Frances] So, here we are.
- Oh, wow.
- Yeah.
- [chuckles]
That is exactly how you explained it!
This is so beautiful! Guys!
[Frances] Oh, we're thrilled with the way
it's come up. We are so happy.
[Sibella] After decades of neglect,
the 1850s stone cellar has been
brought back to its former glory.
[Frances] I think it's turned out
- better than we thought, actually.
- [Luke] Yeah.
[Sibella] It's beautiful!
Every time we come in here,
we get the feeling of how magical it is.
Luke made the shelves
out of red gum from Holowiliena.
[Sibella] That's a huge effort!
[Frances] It's been fun.
We've learned a lot of things.
[Sibella] And you pickled all of this?
[Frances] Yep, yep. Big team effort.
Lots of new recipes, lots of learning.
So, where's the wine?
- Oh, plenty of that stored down here.
- Out the back.
- Oh, it looks good in here, too.
- Yeah.
- Did a good job of the wine rack.
- Did you make this?
Yeah, just real mesh,
just stuck it in some red gum.
[Sibella] Oh, looks fantastic.
[Luke] Kept it simple.
Summertime it's cool and wintertime
it's warmer than outside,
so it's easy to stay down here
and have a port,
if you need one during winter.
[Frances] That moment that you walk in,
you smell the fresh pine
and you just don't want to leave.
As much as it's work,
getting this ready and preparing it,
it's still been enjoyable,
because you know the end result
is gonna be good
and it's been so much fun doing it.
- [Sibella] Well done, guys.
- [laughing]
Absolutely gorgeous.
- It's like walking back in time.
- [Frances laughs] Yeah, it is.
So, you're still keen
for a night in the shack?
- Most definitely.
- That's good. We'll go set you up.
[birds chirping]
[Sibella] It would've been
easy to overdress these buildings,
but by keeping them simple and authentic,
Frances and Luke
have preserved the essence
of their family's pioneer past,
a salute to William Warwick
and his intrepid family.
Whilst this may not be the grandest
of restorations in a physical sense,
it's so much more for this family.
The restoration of this little
pioneer cottage and the cellar
and the reinstatement
of William Warwick's blacksmith shop,
has not only helped to preserve
the unique and treasured family history,
but it's given Frances and Luke
the drive and confidence
to take this property
and the Warwick family into the future
and maybe another 160 years of history.
[baby cooing]
[theme music playing]