Newcastle Gaol Restoration Project

Published on Monday, 17 February 2020 at 10:00:00 AM

This project is nearing completion. In January the removal of barriers around the front of the gaol gave us a wonderful preview of our restored heritage building, even though work continued inside the museum courtyard.

Since the first lot of scaffolding was delivered and erected on 23 September an extensive program of restoration has been undertaken.

Most comprehensive and obvious has been the removal of the sixty year old roof shingles and their replacement with new sawn West Australian sheoak shingles. This has been a mammoth effort and for quite a few weeks has been undertaken in scorching heat.

In addition the following activities were also carried out:

• Repair of the boards the shingles were nailed to
• Replacement of some roofing structures such as rafters and hip joints
• Installation of a moisture proof membrane under the shingles
• Installation of new roof flashing
• Repair of stone walls
• Pest control spraying
• Temporary installation and then removal of scaffolding, both external and internal
• Replacement of gutters
• Installation of sub-soil drainage around the perimeter walls
• Brick paving re-laid along front of gaol to a lower level to allow wall vents to be re-exposed
• New drainage installed along garden beds at front of gaol
• New downpipes installed externally and inside courtyard

Before we can re-open the building to the public we are looking at ways of cleaning the interior spaces ready for the reinstallation of artefacts from the museum collections.

Bear with us for a few more weeks as we prepare our displays. We can’t wait to welcome everyone back.

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