It may look like a large, old corrugated iron shed but there was far more going on behind the recently restored, historically significant Keilor Police Hut; the work of Andronas Conservation Architecture which garnered the Award for Heritage Architecture – Conservation in the 2022 Victorian Architecture Awards.
The director of Andronas Conservation Architecture, Arthur Andronas, said it had taken up to 12 years from locating on a farm what had once been a portable Victorian Police hut imported in 1853 from England as a flat-pack kit of corrugated iron sheets, cast-iron supports and hand-made bolts and rivets. Once set up, the hut was used to house police officers to maintain law and order in the gold fields and also to collect taxes and tolls. It was one of 10 that the Victoria Police Force imported at the time.
“It was set on site in 1853 for two policemen but eventually was used to house an officer and his family,” Mr Andronas told Neos Kosmos.
Eventually it fell out of favour with Victoria Police, but such was the quality of the materials that it was used for other purposes over the years. The hut that had been modified into a shed when it was found on a farm on the High Plains in Keilor 12 years ago.
“It had been at that site since before the Second World War, we found it as a shed with straw inside and tools with a (pit) toilet attached to it. Half of it was collapsing but it was held in place by the (quality of the) corrugated iron sheets. A lot of conservation work was needed,” Mr Andronas said.
That and a lot of research was required. While the corrugated sheets had originally been numbered, time and weather had removed those guides that would have helped in its reconstruction. Some of the sheets had been flattened and their corrugations had to be reshaped.
An archaeologist was called on determine how the building was supported and how it could be safely moved to its present location.
“The biggest issue was the reduction of corrosion on the bolts and metal work. Had we used modern materials it would have speeded up their corrosion, so we had to conduct our own research.
The investigation and research took up to two years, the work was slow because there were many details to attend to before the structure could be transported and slowly reconstituted at its present site on Wurundjeri Country at Harrick’s Cottage in Keilor Park where the original homestead still stands.
“We faced a range of challenges in relocating and restoring the hut, including working out how to take it apart and put it back together,” Mr Andronas said.
“It was the ‘Ikea’ of its day. It was really innovative and an example of brilliant engineering from England that followed in the rest of the world,” he said. “After the 1880s pre-fabricated buildings were really common, but this one was made in 1853.”
The Keilor Police Hut has also been included as part of a submission to UNESCO (United Nations Educational and Scientific Organisation) to list all of Australia’s 19th Century portable buildings on the World Heritage Register. Mr Andronas said there were 70 vintage portable buildings in Victoria and 20 in the rest of Australia.
The police hut is now resting on a concrete slab for added stability. One half of the building is finished as it would have been in the 1850s with timber lining on the inside and corrugated sheeting on the outside. The other half of the building has been left as it was found allowing the visitor to see the intricacy of the cast-iron supports, bolts and riveting.
“It was a great honour to erect it and respect the thinking and attention to detail that went into its making. It was this complexity that probably earned us the award,” Mr Andronas said.
“We are honoured to have received peer acknowledgement for our conservation efforts on the Keilor Police Hut. We’d like to thank Brimbank Council and Keilor Historical Society for entrusting us with this little gem.”
The awards jury citation for the project stated: “The interlopation of conservation, historical interpretation, and the discreet insertion of a technological prosthesis to facilitate the authentic re-erection of this archaeological relic, is a considered study in the science of architectural conservation making the Keilor Police Hut a worthy winner of this year’s Architecture Award for Heritage – Conservation.”