It’s like a pearl concealed within an oyster shell.
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Take away the later additions of the Hotel Australasia, and there are rendered arches, timber floors, timber stairs, pressed metal ceilings, along with period doors, door jambs, architraves and skirting boards.
Resident Peter Whiter made a remarkable discovery one day while visiting friend and pub caretaker Brett Ralph.
The two were playing guitar on the pub’s upper level front veranda.
“The pub’s man hole was off and I looked up and said ‘What the bloody hell’s that?’ and he looked up and said ‘mmm, dunno, get a torch’.
“So I shone the torch up there and it was the original façade of the building.
“The only thing that’s changed in those top rooms is the paint, since 1906.”
Mr Whiter said the value of the building extends back far beyond the days of “The Pit”.
“What we’re saying is that it’s worth keeping,” he said.
“It’s not just The Pit. The really bad thing is that back in the 70s and 80s when the bikers were here it got that bad look and reputation.
“That’s what’s sentimentally being used against it now, and it’s not the building’s fault.”
Another resident fighting to save the building, Angela George, said while the building has value as a place in Eden’s streetscape, the materials are historically unique.
The bricks, she said, were made at a brickworks near the Eden Cemetery and timber was milled at a site to the north of Lake Curalo.
The famous staircase was built from Kauri Pine by John Hines who built the Bank of New South Wales (1904), the Police Station and the Thompson Point baths.
She said Bega Valley Shire council’s refusal to support the community’s nominations and heritage advisor’s recommendations was “absurd”.
“Pip highlighted how rare the original fabric is, it is an almost unknown quantity in the shire to have a building with this much original fabric,” she said.
“You look at photographs of the streetscape taken over the past 100 years or so and it’s the most identifiable building in town,” she said.
Her nomination focused on the original part of the building, the front portion that was built in 1904 and 1905.
“It is structurally sound, it’s the rear of the building, the later additions that aren’t adding anything of heritage importance,” she said.
Ms George said the original pub could be included in redevelopment.
“There is absolutely no reason, and Pip highlighted this in his report, that the building can’t be used for the complex that they want to put up here anyway.
“They can get rid of the addition at the back and have the space they need.
See the heritage report in this week’s agenda at Bega Valley Shire Council’s webpage www.begavalley.nsw.gov.au