Interviewer: Frank Heimans,
            for Baulkham Hills Shire Council

Date of Interview: 15 May 2007

Transcription: Glenys Murray, July 2007

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So you began your work on Bella Vista Farm Park in about 2001?

That’s right.

You’ve already told me that you had to put in a damp course and that you were re roofing the buildings as iron sheets were falling off. What else did get involved with to try and preserve the place on that million dollar grant that they had?

The ceilings on the upper floor of the homestead were in really poor condition because there had been some vandalism, leaks in the roof. The ceilings on the upper level were constructed of lathe and plaster. Which is a series of timber slats nailed to the underside of the ceiling joists and then wet plaster is run over the top. That was a very common way of putting a ceiling in a room in the 1880’s and 1890’s. By its very nature it is a relatively weak construction and sections of the ceiling had fallen down and there were holes in it. We had to consolidate those ceilings by propping them from below and gluing them with an adhesive from within the roof space and leaving the props in place while the adhesive dried. There was the renewal of the guttering and downpipes around the homestead and the kitchen. The iron roofing over the kitchen wing had corroded very badly and that was renewed with new sheets of iron which had been laid over the original timber shingles. So they were exposed during that process and then covered over again. We did a whole lot of investigative work particularly in relation to the decorative finishes in the homestead. We had specialist conservators come in and undertake some paint scrapes and lathes so they were able to identify changing colour schemes. Of course over the paint in some rooms they had placed sheets of wallpaper and over the early sheets of wallpaper were later sheets of wallpaper. So it was a matter of peeling back the layers to reveal the different tastes of essentially the Pearce Family over that period of a hundred years.

Some of the other things that I think had been done. Jones in the 1950’s must have poured a slab of concrete over what were the original sandstone flagged floors of the verandahs at the rear of the homestead and at the side of the kitchen wing. We removed the concrete very carefully so as not to damage the stone flagging underneath, to reveal the original floor. That’s now exposed where it had been covered up for a number of years. We needed to do some re pointing of the external walls of the kitchen block which is a brick structure because there had been moisture drawn into the walls from the ground because there was no damp proof course originally. The bricks had absorbed the moisture and in many places crumbled away quite badly. So there was some brick replacement but a lot of the mortar had just crumbled to dust, so that was done. The front and rear verandahs of the homestead were reconstructed because they had badly deteriorated with the loss of a lot of the cast iron components. The roof of the homestead which had in the 1960’s been replaced with terra cotta which is more like a twentieth century building material and it just looked wrong on this nineteenth century building. So the terra cotta was removed and new slates were put over the main roof of the homestead. We had to reconstruct the external stair at one end of the kitchen block to gain access to the loft space above. The floor of the loft had virtually disappeared so as part of that exercise we introduced new timber to reconstruct the floor of the loft. That’s mainly to the homestead and the kitchen block. Of course the three outbuildings were being worked on at the same time. There was a programme of stabilisation to the implement shed, to the barn and to the packing shed.

Bella Vista Farm homestead back view with new roof

It must be difficult to find workmen and craftsmen that can do all this kind of thing?

It’s becoming increasingly difficult but fortunately if you know where to look and who to ask there are some dedicated contractors out there who enjoy working on old buildings and in the traditional manner. They have built up knowledge and an expertise in that sort of conservation work and of course they are much in demand these days, their services. The other encouraging thing is there have been moves recently to run training courses for apprentices in traditional building technologies. So I think there is always going to be a need for contractors who can treat these buildings in a sensitive manner.

What are your continuing plans for the restoration of the property?

My involvement really in the last two years has been very little because the initial million dollars that the Council had to spend on the conservation of the place has largely been exhausted. To my knowledge there haven’t been too many other funds allocated to conservation works at Bella Vista Farm. I do know that Baulkham Hills Shire Council has made application for additional funding and grants but those more recent applications have not met with success. The key urgent conservation works were in fact carried out to the point where I think now there’s not any danger of buildings collapsing or becoming badly deteriorated due to accelerated weathering. What does need to happen before anything else is the Council needs to complete the process that they’ve already begun in preparing a Plan of Management for Bella Vista Farm. That will examine the feasibility of the future use of the place. Not just from a conservation point of view but from a commercial perspective as well. That process is underway.

Bella Vista Farm homestead with new cast iron verandah and Bunyah Pines in distance

It will be interesting to see what use it might have. It is historic you can’t really do much?

You can’t change it too much but I think there would be opportunities for adaptive reuse. To change certain rooms, what might have been a bedroom might become part of an education centre or a library or something like that. At the moment there are very few facilities for visitation there are no public toilets on the place. There are no opportunities for having places of entertainment or kitchen facilities anywhere. Any use that require bathrooms, toilets, kitchens, function centres or educational resources. These things are going to need to be accommodated probably within new structures and within the Conservation Management Plan that was completed in 2000. There are policies which govern the type of new structures and the locations for new structures that may be introduced on the farm at some future time.

How detailed is this Conservation Management Plan that was done in 2000. Is it detailed enough to be able to determine exactly what needs to be done?

It’s broad enough to be able to identify the right controls on the place but it isn’t detailed enough and couldn’t really be detailed enough at the time to be very specific about key conservation works. I guess to a degree that’s where I came in with my architectural training. The Conservation Management Plan set up a framework, it made provisions for the right directions for the Council to go in and appoint the right sort of professional people to be involved in assisting Council with the work. A lot of the really detailed analysis and understanding needed to be given over to those professional consultants.

What have been the activities of the recently formed Friends of Bella Vista Farm Park?

The friends group have really only been established for less that twelve months. There hasn’t been a great deal of time to achieve very much at all. Other than incorporation they’re an incorporated body and they have no funds at the moment. They’re working in conjunction with Council at the moment to try and make sure that the future direction and control and management of Bella Vista Farm adheres to the framework that was established in the Conservation Management Plan. The good thing about having the friends group is that they’re largely members of the local community who are keenly interested in Bella Vista Farm and the history of it and also the future of it. They want to see the place conserved properly, want to see the place effectively used in the right manner. In a sensitive manner that maintains and respects the significance I think that these Friends, these individuals have a greater passion for the place than the local government employees who come and go. It’s really going to be through the dedication and commitment of the local community rather than the Council staff that will see the future of the place.

View from Bella Vista Farm looking north east

What are the immediate priorities for Bella Vista Farm Park now? What needs to be done urgently to make it possible to…?

Well what really needs to happen is the Council really needs to finalise their Plan of Management document. Until that is finalised and adopted by the Council so it’s a working tool very little can be done. There are some conservation works that have been identified that the Friends of Bella Vista Farm are aware of that need to happen irrespective of any future use for the place. They’re limited and they’re really only related to the homestead and the kitchen wing. In talking about the homestead earlier and the conservation works that have happened most of those works were done to the external envelope of the buildings. Hardly any work has been done internally so the staircase is still dangerous, the timber floors have holes in them and are unstable, the windows and the doors and the shutters need to be repaired, need to be reconstructed in places. That would need to happen whatever use the homestead was put to. So I guess if the Council were able to allocate funds to conservation works those sorts of things could occur immediately.

What’s the state of the electrical wiring in the building?

I don’t think the electrical wiring has been touched for probably more than fifty years.

So would you say it’s dangerous perhaps?

Well it may be although I think the electricity has been disconnected and a lot of the fittings have been removed. But there is still a lot of redundant wiring in the place.

What about the state of the gardens and the grounds of the property? Can you describe the state that’s in?

I guess you’d have to say that it was in a greatly depleted state. You are still able to recognise where kitchen gardens were, where ornamental formal garden beds were in front of the homestead. But certainly since I first went there in 1992 and today in 2007 I think the garden areas and the grounds have suffered greatly through neglect and lack of maintenance. In the 1980’s when the photographic survey was done most of the gates on the property and we’re talking twenty to twenty five gates. They were photographed and recorded and I’ve seen the photographs and they appear to have been then, twenty five years ago in reasonably good condition. I don’t think there is one gate on the place now that could be described as in good condition, they’re all in very poor condition or they’ve disappeared.

Bella Vista Farm front garden

What about the bushland and the actual flora of the place?

Well there is still quite a lot of healthy trees, native trees and a lot of the Bunya Pines appear to be quite healthy. They don’t receive a great deal of attention from anybody although I do know that the Council harvests those rather large Bunya Pine cones in February every year because of the perceived danger of those dropping onto people that may happen to be in the area at the time.

So its original Cumberland Bush is it?

Not the whole place there are some sections of the property particularly over in the western edge near Norwest Boulevard that retain indigenous trees eucalypts.

What uses does the site have right at this moment?

The only thing that has occurred on the site in the last few years has been, every year since 2005 there has been an open day where the place has been opened to the public. They have been extraordinarily popular I know that in 2005 and again in 2006 there were in round figures ten thousand people visited the place on this one open day. It’s like a fair I suppose there are stalls and activities. They import farm animals and tractor rides for children but it does give the local community an opportunity to walk around the place, see it, understand it and get to understand a little of what Council’s plans may be.

Is there anything else that you think we should talk about that’s important to put on record?

I do think it’s important that there is a group of dedicated people like the Friends of Bella Vista Farm that will act as a watchdog if you like and keep an eye on the place and can assist Council in that regard. By liaising with Council and perhaps jointly organising activities. That’s beginning to happen but I think for any part of the Nation’s significance unless there is somebody that understands that and is prepared to ensure that it’s maintained that’s the only way of ensuring long term conservation.