42 DIGS.NET
|
4.17.2020
L E G E N D S | C A P TA I N K E L LY ' S C OT TA G E
MELBOURNE-BASED
FIRM JOHN WARDLE
ARCHITECTS
REDESIGNED
CAPTAIN KELLY'S
COTTAGE WITH
SENSITIVITY FOR
THE BUILDING'S
HISTORIC ELEMENTS
WHILE ALSO
CREATING A MORE
FUNCTIONAL
CONTEMPORARY
FORM.
PHOTOGRAPHS
COURTESY OF
TREVOR MEIN.
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With sensitivity to time and tradition, John Wardle Architects
forsakes spectacle to restore a clapboard cottage in questionable
condition to a sentinel on the shores of history.
W R I T T E N B Y J E N N T H O R N T O N
SHELTER ISLAND
O
n a windswept cliff-edge of Tasmania's Bruny
Island, an architectural remnant of an earlier
age asserts itself utterly without ceremony, but
rather as a thoughtful provocation of the past for present
times. In choosing to restore this historic but deteriorating
structure with consideration for its place in local culture,
Melbourne-based John Wardle Architects also restored
the legacy of its namesake, Captain John Kelly.
Phase three of a project that also included resuscitating
the landscape with the plantings of hundreds of trees
and a new Shearers' Quarters building, Captain Kelly's
Cottage was first built at the mariner's bidding (likely
by ship hands) for his daughter Mary in the 1840s.
Originally two structures for bedrooms and a kitchen
hemmed in by a vast veranda, it was a mostly humble
affair. But with an assist from the historic standing of
Kelly, widely acclaimed for his seagoing exploits, its
significance is far less modest.
What the team from John Wardle Architects and an
architectural historian did not learn about the cottage
from searching diaries, libraries and logbooks, they saw
quite clearly for themselves: namely, a victim of many ill-
considered alterations. "The verandah was partly built-
in, its structure replaced by steel posts and additions
had occurred in an ad-hoc manner," notes the firm,
somewhat diplomatically (the interior of the cottage is
thought to have sunk). And so their work mandated
efforts to return the structure to its more respectful
original form, including ridding it of all non-originals
and a scrupulous paint removal process to unearth the
cottage's initial palette.
To achieve fluency between old and new, the firm
placed a new living area between the two existing
structures. They also made a striking focal point of
the original veranda, continuing the exposed ceiling
rafters of its eaves in the new entry and living spaces.
The kitchen, which was returned to its 1960 profile—
weatherboards were extracted and original profiled
boards fabricated and installed externally—is another
conduit of time periods. The space also was stripped of
