CMP & CONSERVATION WITH NEW WORKS
1992 -1998
The Dairy Precinct contains rare and intact structures, archaeological deposits and landscape elements dating from the earliest years of European settlement in the colony, including evidence of those who have lived and worked in the precinct throughout its history. The Dairy Cottage is believed to be the most intact eighteenth century structure to survive in Australia and remains substantially unaltered since c.1820.
Design 5 – Architects was engaged to conserve and stabilise the very fragile historic structures, their setting and context, preserving every layer of development of the site from its establishment as an ex-convict’s farm in the 1790s, through its use as a government dairy from c.1815 and ranger’s residence from the 1850s, to its use as a maintenance depot for Parramatta Park from the early twentieth century.
The conservation policies developed for the project include: All the periods of history in the development of the site should be respected and acknowledged; the historical layering of the fabric and past uses should not be obscured; intervention in the fabric should be kept to a minimum with evidence of all phases of the history and use of the place kept in situ; no uses should be introduced which would compromise public access and interpretation of significant elements and spaces, though public access should be restricted to some areas to avoid damage to the fabric of the site.
AWARDS
1999 RAIA (NSW) Award for Architecture, Conservation and Adaptive Re-use