Gulgong’s ‘American Tobacco Warehouse Company’ and ‘The Greatest Wonder of the World’ buildings will be returned to their former glory with shop front restoration work underway.
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The facade restoration is the latest stage in the transformation of the buildings that will house the Gulgong Holtermann Museum and its UNESCO listed Gulgong and Hill End gold rush photographs.
Holtermann Museum Committee chairman Chris Pearson said sign writers have been commissioned and the buildings will be repainted in line with the late 1800s colour scheme.
“We’re working on the facades as per heritage advice,” Mr Pearson said.
“We’re quite excited to return the buildings to pride of place in our main street.”
The committee has secured recycled materials sourced from the recently demolished old Gulgong Hospital building.
'This project has received considerable interest from the local community and beyond and represents a wonderful opportunity to preserve and celebrate the unique historical character of Gulgong.'
“We received galvanised iron, sandstock bricks and blue stone – which is quite hard to source,” Mr Pearson said.
While this stage of the project has been funded by sponsors, the committee is looking to finance the remaining internal works and has lodged an intention to apply for a one-off $150,000 grant from Mid-Western Regional Council.
At its August meeting council voted to consider the request as part of its 2016/17 budget process. It further agreed to provide in principal support should the Gulgong Holtermann Museum apply for grant funding.
If approved the funding would be allocated to further restoration work, interiors and the installation of interactive displays.
“This project has received considerable interest from the local community and beyond and represents a wonderful opportunity to preserve and celebrate the unique historical character of Gulgong,” a report to council said.
“Council’s financial assistance will enable eligibility for the further application of State and Federal Government grant funding that requires a dollar for dollar funding commitment. There are some real attractions to supporting the Holtermann Museum project, including their development of a solid working relationship with the State Library of New South Wales and the use of the Holtermann photographic collection.
“Alongside this is the relationship to the Red Hill site and the significant funding support that council has provided to the Gulgong community through this project.”