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Neo-colonial Boy
12 October 2000
To build a house from scratch proved an irresistible challenge for this builder - and the judges were impressed.
As a 16-year-old apprentice builder, Gary Waller worked for a carpenter of exceptional skill and experience who passed on to Waller his knowledge and a passion for joinery.
By the time he was 21, Waller was running his own business. And soon after that his love of historic styles of building came to the fore.
Working on Ronald McDonald House in Glebe, Waller met heritage architect Clive Lucas of Clive Lucas, Stapleton & Partners and began a relationship that set him on the path of restoring National Trust buildings and kindred high-quality historic homes.
Already a multiple MBA winner, Waller has worked on the restoration and conservation of Hyde Park Barracks, Elizabeth Farm, Sydney Museum and Dundullimal in Dubbo. During the past year he and his team have been working on Swifts, the gracious 1870s sandstone mansion in Darling Point.
The house which attracted the attention of this year's MBA judges is the first new home, apart from his own, that Waller has built. The house, at Cabbage Tree Road, Bayview, on Sydney's northern beaches, is a neo-colonial home he describes as a "new old house".
Architect Ian Stapleton wanted Waller for the Bayview house because the project needed a specialist builder. "I chose Gary Waller because he's a master of colonial joinery," Stapleton says.
The architect had worked with Waller previously on restoring the exteriors of Bronte House in 1980 and the Merchant House Museum in The Rocks. Stapleton had also seen how Waller and Clive Lucas transformed from derelict ruins the rare slab cottage of Dundullimal at Dubbo and restored Cooma Cottage at Yass. Waller had also completed a Georgian home for himself and his family.
He lived at Dubbo and Yass while working on Dundullimal and Cooma Cottage and Stapleton says because they were out in the country, the builder had to turn his hand to virtually every aspect of the work, from bricklaying to limewashing.
"He is the ultimate builder in that he knows how to do it himself, the sort of builder you only use on an important building restoration, but he agreed [to do this house at Bayview], because he was intrigued by doing it all from scratch." It is this work that won him the Master Builder of the Year award.
Involving an exceptional 90 architectural plans and council conditions close to double that figure, the Bayview house was certainly a labour of love.
The council's first provision was to make sure there was as little as possible impact on the natural bushland. The house is on the Bayview escarpment and fringed by 1.6 hectares of bush which is dominated by old angophoras, grass trees and flannel flowers.
Waller says they had to build within a set boundary, and not destroy any natural bushland beyond it. An arborist was employed to inspect any tree-root systems close to this boundary. If any root systems did stray into the planned footing area Waller brought in an engineer to redesign that section of footing so the building wouldn't interfere with the growth of the tree.
They saw-cut boulders on the building line so they appear to run under the house, then they poured foundations.
Waller became an expert in moving native plants. "There were so many grass trees. We replanted the best part of 70 though only around 50 survived."
To come up with the design Stapleton borrowed from numerous classic Australian houses he has restored or knows of, including The Grange in Campbelltown, and Blackdown at Bathurst.
The homestead-style house is built in a U-shape featuring two wings around a courtyard with the rooms in either wing accessed via the courtyard veranda. The wings include a self-contained office and guest accommodation and the traditional courtyard has a plain cover of granite gravel.
"The concept included having a warm enclosed courtyard on one side of the house leading through to a cool bushland eyrie on the other side," Waller says.
Three types of brickwork - English, colonial and stretcher (common brickwork) - were used in the building. English bricks tend to feature in less weather-exposed positions.
"It was fairly complicated to bring those three bonds together," Waller says.
Predominately brickwork with a galvanised iron roof, the house also uses extensive timber both structurally - the frame was cypress pine to resist termite attack - and in the internal joinery which incorporates detailed architect-designed cornices, architraves and entablatures over the doors. (The woodwork also won the Best Use of New Timber category in this year's awards.) "It is all part of keeping the crafts alive," Waller says.
The timberwork was an aspect of the house highlighted by MBA judges. "The joinery is from the builder's own joinery shop and is expertly detailed.
"[The joinery was] all mortice and tenon which is traditional, just as you would have done 200 years ago. And we used marine glues for extra strength," Waller says.
The timbers used on the verandas were six metres long and 300 by 300mm. They were sourced from a property in Dubbo. Recycled timber from Victoria was also used in the house.
A portable sawmill was brought on site and timber, such as the huge tapered veranda posts, were remilled and then redressed using electric planers.
Another aspect praised by the judges was the fireproofing incorporated in the house. "A need to protect doors and windows from bushfires presented unique problems with subsequent innovative solutions," one judge noted.
To meet a high level of fireproofing, some of the on-site boulders split by stonemasons were used for a 2.1-metre sandstone firebreak wall on two boundaries. The builder also put in a fire-rated section on the southern wing of the house and galvanised tanks for storing water for the firefighting system.
And the judges have the last word on the masterful construction: "an impressive home set in elevated bushland, designed for a modern interpretation of a courtyard colonial-period villa.
"The design called for a complicated double axis to achieve the layout. Rooms are of traditional proportions and interior plaster and timber detailing reflect colonial practice ... A very special home with great character."
