Kiandra Court House: New South Wales
The Kiandra Courthouse is a heritage-listed former courthouse at Kiandra in the Kosciuszko National Park, Snowy Valleys Council, New South Wales, Australia. It is also known as Kiandra Courthouse/Chalet. The property is owned by the Office of Environment and Heritage, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
The Project
With only the original black and white photo (shown at the top of the page) to go off. The current form (Picture Below) needed to be returned back to the original condition. Being a heritage job this meant that all original parts of the building needed to remain in tact.
Stone masons were hired to remove all the stucco on the façade reveling the beautiful original bluestone blocks.
All windows, door and shutters needed to be remade as close to original as possible whilst using minimal modern day machinery.
Internal flooring had to be completely pulled up and re-built using blackbutt timber
Roof was also fully re-built to the exact original pitch as the original and joined to the chalet behind. Corrugated roofing was much thicker than standard making it harder to source.
The patio was the final part to finish which was still being completed on the last day. Snow falling, cold and miserable whether and still painting. Media was there to film the grand opening in which we finished only 30mins prior.
Project Commencement: November 2009 – Completed: May 2010
We stayed the entire time in a little town nearby called Adaminaby
History
This was the site of the courthouse and gaol established as part of Kiandra Township with a gold rush in the area in 1859-60. Evidence of the gold rush phenomenon and the former Kiandra Township is represented in the landscape, through the extant remains spread across the former town site.
Kiandra is significant as the site of the first Australian ski club and as probably the first Australian place which promoted snow sports. The 1958 and 1962 Kiandra Chalet building extensions to the original courthouse is a typical example of the KSPT promoted State Park Alpine style. The remnant chalet is important as one of the few remnant buildings of Kiandra’s resort/Snowy Mountains Scheme era, and therefore is a twentieth century link with the nineteenth century pioneer snow sports in Australia. Later, the building was used as a place of accommodation for generations who stayed at the chalet for recreation or during the construction of the Snowy Hydro Scheme.
In 2000 Heritage Council approval was given for the removal of single storey additions, to return the building to the original courthouse, as well as to repair roofing and guttering to reduce water ingress.
In 2013 the Heritage Council approved the adaptive re-use of the courthouse and chalet, including a new accommodation and services building, including removal of the existing shed structures surrounding it.
(Source: Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiandra_Courthouse#cite_note-NSWshr-994-02-3)
Unfortunately Kiandra Courthouse was severely damaged by fire during the 2020 Kosciuszko National Park bushfires. Plans are currently in motion for a re-build
Services Provided
- Stone Masonary
- Carpentry
- Landscaping
- Project Management
- Plumbing
- Electrical
