Peterborough roundhouse restoration leads the Silver to Sea Way

PETER FOSDIKE

Capital works have begun for the exciting new Silver to Sea Way heritage tourism drive trail, starting with the iconic roundhouse at Peterborough, where restoration work is being guided by the original drawings, thanks to some useful detective work.

As featured in the last edition of Heritage Living, the National Trust of South Australia has received $6.594 million from the Australian Government’s Building Better Regions Fund for Stage 1 of the Silver to Sea Way. This new touring route stretches from Silverton/Broken Hill in New South Wales to Port Pirie in South Australia.

Major building regeneration works have been scoped for three sites during Stage 1 of the project from Port Pirie to Peterborough — the Peterborough Roundhouse, the old Gladstone Gaol, and the former railway station and customs house in Port Pirie. These major capital works projects will be supplemented by new visitor experiences and interactive displays along the route.

First of the capital works projects to get underway is the roundhouse, one of the main attractions at Peterborough and an integral part of the award winning Steamtown Sound and Light Show.

Designed and built in 1924 by Robert Hall Chapman for South Australian Railways, the roundhouse was one of three built at the same time, the others being Mile End and Tailem Bend, now both demolished. It contains some truly impressive pieces of timber, with some of the main columns being 10-inch (25.4 centimetre) square pieces of jarrah more than 30 feet (10 metres) tall.

The roof structure is largely composed of Oregon pine, also known as Douglas fir. The structure was originally clad in asbestos-coated steel sheeting, some of which is still in place. The original steel framing in the windows around the exterior is also still in place and in need of repair and remediation.

Due to weathering and termite damage, there has been some deterioration of the building over time. The project will involve structural assessment, remediation of the timber and the removal of all remaining asbestos products on site.

The work will be carried out by McMahon Services Services on behalf of the Trust. McMahon have been selected because of their previous involvement with Steamtown, and extensive expertise in asbestos management and disposal. With local teams in the Mid North, McMahon Services is also keen to work with the Trust towards the project goals of providing local training and employment opportunities.

Thanks to some detective work by the National Trust and others, we have managed to locate the original drawings of the roundhouse, which have given us some vital information about the construction of the building, particularly the footings.

Made of jarrah, they are now at least 1.5 metres underground. While there appears to have been some sinking of the structure in spots, there are no plans at this stage to raise them to original levels as that would be likely to create more problems than it would fix. The existing roof will be replaced with sheeting produced in galvanised steel to match the original ‘Super-6’ profile. While the main posts are generally in good condition, some of the roof timbers have started to show signs of age and will also need replacing.

Thanks to more excellent detective work by the Mount Gambier branch of the Trust, we have discovered that timbers from the former Mount Gambier roundhouse are available to make the repairs. Regrettably, that building was demolished in 2019, however some of the timbers have been preserved. This will be a crucial supply component for the project, as timbers of this size and specification are simply not available today. The external posts will be retained where possible, and treated with timber preservatives to ensure their longevity.

With the newly uncovered original plans and timbers recovered from its Mount Gambier cousin, the Peterborough roundhouse is ripe for regeneration as one of the lynch pins of the SIlver to Sea Way experience. BELOW

Below: Part of the original drawings for the roundhouse, c.1924 (courtesy of Mark O'Malley, Refreshing Memories).