Restoring heritage ruins into living homes
Over two years, International Designer Sibella Court, follows the trials and tribulations of 7 groups of Australians committed to the daunting task of restoring heritage ruins into living homes. From Georgian mansions to colonial pug and pine huts, these Aussie battlers attempt to restore the buildings to their former glory.
Across Australia, thousands of heritage buildings lie in ruins--forgotten, neglected and slowly decaying into the landscape. But these are more than just crumbling old homes. They are touchstones to our past and deserve to be saved. Join renowned designer Sibella Court as she follows seven families battling the odds to rebuild and rescue wonderful slices of our history.
7 episodes
Built in 1885 by a stone mason from Aberdeen, Keith Hall is no more than a pile of granite. Clay is planning to rebuild the original building, manhandling the stone blocks entirely on his own.
Runtime: 55 minAttempting to leave the ghosts of the Kinglake fires behind them, Jo and Marcus bought Woodcot Park. They find that they have taken on not only a restoration but also the ghost of the original Scottish owner.
Runtime: 55 minThe little shop in Harrington Street is one of the oldest timber buildings left in Hobart. Vacant and derelict, it has been the victim of two arson attacks. To avoid demolition, owners Haydn and Penny need to act.
Runtime: 55 minMarnie and Dale dream of converting 'Gervasoni Homestead' into a family home. But with the buildings near collapse and a modest budget, has the romance of these buildings gone to their heads?
Runtime: 55 minEmmaville could be the lost birth place of bush poet and composer Banjo Paterson. With the cottage precariously situated and under threat from developers, the local community of Orange in NSW must act quickly to save it.
Runtime: 55 minBuilt in 1843 of convict bricks, Keera Vale has suffered severe damage and needs love and care. Jen and Harold have fallen for 'the house on the hill', but is love enough to save this grand old dame?
Runtime: 55 minHolowiliena was settled in 1853 by the Warwick family and their descendants still live on the property. With no money or heritage skills, can they save the original settler's buildings?
Runtime: 55 minStuart Harrison, Architect and Historian, follows homeowners across the country as they restore Australia's greatest buildings.
6 episodes
Host Stuart Harrison meets a Perth couple who want to resurrect their adored family home that was lost to fire in 2015. But will they be able to rebuild the 1960s iconic modernist house as its original architect envisioned?
Runtime: 57 minDale and Michael embark on a project to restore two 19th Century timber cottages on their Tasmanian rural property. Will they accomplish their dream?
Runtime: 57 minThe 1960's introduced us to shag rugs, lava lamps, minimalism and bright, open spaces. Melbourne couple Laura and Reece are leaving inner Melbourne for suburbia, with plans to restore a modernist home to its former glory.
Runtime: 57 minSnapping up a piece of local history and preserving it appealed to Jan and her daughter Annie. Joined by Annie's carpenter partner, Chris, they tackle the daunting task of making the 1840s homestead a new family home.
Runtime: 57 minJohnny and Ann want to transform a 19th Century stables and pickers cottages, in the wine region of McLaren Vale, into their new home. With a Christmas deadline, the pressure is on to restore the derelict buildings.
Runtime: 57 minAFL fanatics John and Rosie have bought an iconic 19th century gasworks building overlooking the North Melbourne Football Club and oval, and they want to turn into their dream home.
Runtime: 57 minStuart Harrison, Architect and Historian, follows homeowners across the country as they restore Australia's greatest buildings.
8 episodes
Milton Terrace at Millers Point in Sydney was sold off for $4.25M in 2015 as part of the NSW Government's disposal of 300 public housing buildings. For property developer Michael Stokes, it's a Mayfair terrace in the making.
Runtime: 57 minHardware store owners Jo and Digby McNeil took on more than just the restoration of a heritage home in Inverell, NSW, when they bought an historic 'job lot' that included a convent and an old boys' boarding school.
Runtime: 57 minCarl and Jennie Palmer set about trying to recreate their Federation homestead's grandeur but finding the line between a functioning modern home and a heritage restoration is harder than they anticipate.
Runtime: 58 minWhen carpenter Kate and her mother Ann buy two old prospecting huts for $100,000 in Clydesdale in regional Victoria, they take on 180 years worth of dilapidation.
Runtime: 57 minWhen a former Baptist Church cum nightclub hits the market in Ballarat, local anaesthetist Michael Whitehead buys it and plans to turn it into a home, but he soon finds the task could drag on for eternity!
Runtime: 58 minWhen a Sydney couple buy a colonial cottage in one of Australia's most protected heritage areas, they get more than they bargained for. How will they transform a home from the 19th century into a family home for the 21st?
Runtime: 57 minWhen Mel and Jack buy a derelict old Queenslander for $21,000 and move it to their land in Noosa it seems they've scored the bargain of the century, or at least a century old bargain!
Runtime: 57 minHeritage devotees Val and John Jessop decide to buy and reassemble two old buildings - an old ghost town cottage and an old sawmill. What could be more difficult than that?
Runtime: 57 minOver two years, International Designer Sibella Court, follows the trials and tribulations of 7 groups of Australians committed to the daunting task of restoring heritage ruins into living homes. From Georgian mansions to colonial pug and pine huts, these Aussie battlers attempt to restore the buildings to their former glory.
7 episodes
Host Anthony Burke meets Deb and Mike who are saving a rickety colonial cottage and digging for the true story of its origins.
Runtime: 57 minHost Anthony Burke meets a couple who are transforming their Mid-Century Modern 1950s house into a family home suitable for 21st Century living, in a beachside paradise just outside Melbourne.
Runtime: 57 minHost Anthony Burke meets a couple who've bought a huge rundown Victorian mansion in Milton, NSW and plan to restore its regal beauty and throw open its doors to the local community.
Runtime: 57 minHost Anthony Burke meets retired couple David and Mandy who take on the transformation of a hugely significant historic cottage in Hobart, Tasmania.
Runtime: 57 minHost Anthony Burke meets a couple who are saving an important example of Federation Queen Anne architecture in coastal NSW, while dealing with a profound health crisis.
Runtime: 58 minHost Anthony Burke meets a couple who have purchased one of the most significant buildings in the historic town of Kyneton, Victoria.
Runtime: 57 minHost Anthony Burke meets Martin Nix who is restoring an 1850s workers cottage in Balmain on Sydney Harbour, all while dealing with a recent family tragedy.
Runtime: 57 minHost and Architecture Professor, Anthony Burke follows the progress and pitfalls of single-minded restoration enthusiasts who stop at almost nothing to revitalise their beloved buildings.
7 episodes
Anthony Burke meets self-confessed 'Architecture Nerds' Annette and Michael Pitman who own the smallest of all the Walter Burley Griffin-designed houses in Castlecrag and want to restore and extend the house.
Runtime: 57 minHost Anthony Burke meets a young couple turning a big crumbling church in remote South Australia - bought with a credit card - into a family home, using the internet as their guide.
Runtime: 58 minHost Anthony Burke meets a couple turning a neglected inner-city Queenslander into a period showcase and eco-friendly, healthy haven as one partner recovers from cancer.
Runtime: 57 minHost Anthony Burke meets a young couple transforming a tiny miner's cottage into a family home in a celebration of sustainability and old-fashioned craftsmanship.
Runtime: 57 minHost Anthony Burke meets a couple turning a dilapidated orphanage into a family home. Can their restoration bring laughter and warmth back to an institutional building with a confronting history?
Runtime: N/A minWhen a charming old Queenslander travels 800 kilometres south of the tropics to an eco-village, it needs a complete retrofit to become uber energy efficient - but will this come at the expense of its heritage?
Runtime: 57 minHost Anthony Burke meets a family aiming to turn a tiny war memorial church into a holiday home in the face of local hopes it would be kept as a venerated public landmark.
Runtime: 57 minAnthony Burke follows some of the country's most passionate homeowners as they roll up their sleeves and set about rebuilding and preserving some of our most culturally important heritage homes that are on the brink of ruin.
6 episodes
Host Anthony Burke meets a Brisbane couple determined to return a vandalised, graffiti-daubed wreck to its rightful place as one of the city's finest mansions, no matter the cost.
Runtime: 57 minHost Anthony Burke meets a King Islander returning home to one of Australia's most remote and weatherbeaten outposts to reclaim and restore a derelict farmhouse.
Runtime: 57 minHost Professor Anthony Burke joins a dedicated couple doing all they can to preserve a valuable slice of Australian history that would otherwise dissolve into the dirt and be lost forever.
Runtime: 58 minHost Anthony Burke meets a couple supersizing a beachside bungalow into a Sydney trophy home while still somehow trying to preserve its quaint 1920's identity.
Runtime: 57 minHost Anthony Burke meets a couple turning an 1880s two-storey weatherboard wreck in South Melbourne into a dream home for their growing young family.
Runtime: 58 minHost Anthony Burke meets a couple aiming to restore a crumbling stone police station and hope to solve the baffling case of the missing jailhouse.
Runtime: 57 minBreathing new life into heritage houses, grand or humble, is a testing, bittersweet adventure that engages and inspires architecture expert Anthony Burke in this brand new series of Restoration Australia.
6 episodes
Host Anthony Burke meets a big city couple aiming to bring a slouching country town mansion back to the burnished glory of its gold rush years.
Runtime: 57 minHost Anthony Burke joins a young couple, Steph and Paul, as they set out bravely and optimistically to write a happy, luxe new chapter for a storied 150-year-old Melbourne institution.
Runtime: 57 minIn Orange NSW, first responders Chris and Mel have found all the cosmopolitan comforts of city living along with fresh air, big skies, open spaces and a sweet Edwardian fixer-upper called Bega.
Runtime: 57 minAnthony Burke meets a former international model and his rock'n'roll supergroup-connected partner as they try to turn a neglected country manor into a stylish home and function centre.
Runtime: 57 minAnthony Burke meets a Sydney couple who impulse-buy an old, dilapidated school in South Australia, sight unseen, and turn their hands to restoring it.
Runtime: 58 minAnthony Burke meets a pub rocker and a yoga teacher falling in love with Tasmania and a dunnyless, kitchenless, weatherboard relic falling apart in a small northern town.
Runtime: 57 minRestoration Australia: trailer