Notre Dame

[mynameiscd (Andy)]

Hi Alex,
Ive put this too the station manager but to him whats the point of
selling all that "old wood its just firewood".!!!
I told him cut about 50mm off tge top to cut away the nails and then you can use machines to redress the timber if needed.
I'll keep onto this because I hate this stuff.
Anyway here's a few photos of my progess.
As for Notre Dame i hope the same thing doesnt happen but they've already had their "burn pile".
Cheers
Andy

[xelasnave]

That is great Andy and wont it look great when you get all that stone cement rendered☺.

I am joking of course.

It looks fantastic... thanks for sharing.

A bloke up here built a beautiful stone house..110 tons of stone ..all by himself over ten or more years..he said each stone got handled five times and that he wore out three wheel barrows.
The foundations were over the top I cant remember the cement used but it was like ten times a pad.

He and his wife lived in a caravan for the time it was being built but theu split up when they moved into the new place...no mortar that you can see...but the walls are effectively three rocks thick .but rendered on the inside...huge but only two bedrooms.

Door frames and window frames like railway sleepers bigger really..I love the place and stayed there many times cause he would go away working for six months...
My old place is rock half of the wall and it looks cute..but rendered on the inside... dust was just too much.

Alex

[Sunfish (Ray)]

Great stonework and an interesting building.

I think you could find someone to take straight lengths of red gum for recycling if there is transport. Transport and loading is the issue usually. I have used many recycled spotted gum and blackbutt purlins with nails removed and the joiners have not hit a nail. Joiners here even recycle for window frames if the species and quality is right.

Pm me and I can ask around.

[mynameiscd (Andy)]

Hi Ray,
I have recycled as much as posible as I rebuilt all the windows and doorways but im not in control of the floor so the modern type carpenters have never seen a building like this with stone dwarf walls etc are in contol of this part.
Im doing my best to stop the destruction. Im also looking for fir someone in Western Victoria who can help restore the woolpress.
If not I'll do it myself otherwise it might get cut up and stored in a shed somewhere.
I would love the opportunity to work on a restoration job like Notre Dame, maybe i might have to go for a working holiday in Europe.
Hmmm i might miss the Clear Skies here though.
I might stick to early Australian colonial restorations and low light pollution for a while yet.
Cheers
Andy

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by glend

I see the "Yellow Shirts" are rioting again, after a rest period following the fire. Seems they are upset about the financial response to the fire, and nothing for them. Good riddance to them, they have done a lot to destroy Parisian tourism over the past year.

No idea...

[RyanJones]

Hi Andy,

A great project to be working on. I used to be a carpenter and had the opportunity to work with some old timber on a post and beam house on the Mornington peninsula . The entire house was made from reclaimed timer and stone with mud brick walls. We had old railway sleepers and old timber shipping containers and old timber bridges for the frame. The owner of the house had a team of 4 guys with 4 planners and a few dozen boxes of blades who would work with us 6 days a week preparing each timber for use. The cost of the place was originally estimated at $250,000. By the time we had finished it was slightly over half a million. Sometimes, sadly, money just gets in the way of preservation or reclaimation. I really enjoyed the job and it was certainly different even though it could quite easily have taken my life when my drill bit jammed in an iron bark post some 12 meters off the ground and threw me off the planks I was standing on. Thank god for a home made harness
It's great to see you still carrying forward a true craftsman skill of stone masonry. Good on you

[Sunfish (Ray)]

Great mortise and tenon frame and corner stone work. Very impressive.

I hear reported that the French require more traditionally trained specialist tradesmen so perhaps they will call for volunteers, in a similar way to the Tall Ships restoration. More than likely though a modern solution will be proposed.,

There are some great restored woolsheds such as the one at a lake Mungo , and on the Darling, complete with machinery. Great places to see great hand made buildings.

Originally Posted by mynameiscd

Hi Ray,
I have recycled as much as posible as I rebuilt all the windows and doorways but im not in control of the floor so the modern type carpenters have never seen a building like this with stone dwarf walls etc are in contol of this part.
Im doing my best to stop the destruction. Im also looking for fir someone in Western Victoria who can help restore the woolpress.
If not I'll do it myself otherwise it might get cut up and stored in a shed somewhere.
I would love the opportunity to work on a restoration job like Notre Dame, maybe i might have to go for a working holiday in Europe.
Hmmm i might miss the Clear Skies here though.
I might stick to early Australian colonial restorations and low light pollution for a while yet.
Cheers
Andy

[Sunfish (Ray)]

Ps. Who is that bunch of hipsters in the last image? They look like my great grandfather’s building team.

[xelasnave]

Bring back the original building team.

alex

[mynameiscd (Andy)]

Cheers guys,
I still have so much passion for my work even when i was laid up with sciatica last year. All i was thinking about was not being able to finish the woolshed.
Over the years a lot of my work has been doing salt damp repair so weeks and weeks on my knees so a job like this is a real change.
The picture is from about 1870s of the indigenous shearers who also helped to build the woolshed about 15 years before.
350+ tonnes of ironstone was shifted 11 kms to build this shed.

These guys were the main workforce around when the squatters moved in. The aboriginal women and children used to round up the sheep though the lake to wash the sheep before shearing.
Before this photo was taken a group of indigenous cricketers were taken on tour (1868) around England to become Australias first 11.
They were born and worked on these properties around the area.
By the end the 1870s there were only a handful of aborigines left after being pushed of their lands and into missions, and by 1890 there were none.
All these sheds around SE Australia were supposed to be built by the Chinese on the way to the goldfields from landing at Robe.
The ships landed at Robe in 1857 and they were on a 4 to 5 week mission to get to goldfields not a 6 to 7 year wait to then start some stone woolsheds!!!
A lot nicer story than use free aboriginal labour and then systematicly force them off the land.
Some of the stories I've uncovered are so brutal that its actually genocide.
History is still getting rewritten.
Cheers
Andy