Renovation takes years off Bunbury city icon

After five years of planning and almost five months of hard work, the facade of Bunbury’s Lotteries House has been restored to its original glory.

A celebration was held on March 8 to mark the completion of the renovations, made possible in part by a $200,000 Lotterywest grant.

Lotteries House board chairwoman Annette Dix said she was thrilled with the final result.

“It’s a fabulous building – it deserved the attention, she has got the attention and she is just the belle of ball as far as I am concerned. She is gorgeous,” Ms Dix said.

“She is the heart of Bunbury and it is wonderful the heart of Bunbury is a community asset.”

Ms Dix said despite some bumps in the road the renovation process was a smooth one.

“I think everybody – the tenants for their patience, as well as the building company, the project manager, the State Heritage Council and the City of Bunbury should be very proud of the results,” she said. Apex House also received a facelift during the renovations and now boasts a new paint job.

“We couldn’t leave the lady in waiting could we?” Ms Dix said.

Steve Alcock from Brick and Mortar Restoration South West and architect Kent Lyon were tasked with carrying out the renovations, which Mr Alcock said was “probably the biggest job we have done in the South West”.

“Apex House was mainly painting, but Lotteries House was all the paint removal and then the tuck pointing as well,” he said.

“All the work has been done as per heritage requirements and the colours are now all pretty much as it originally was.”

Mr Lyon said there had been significant collaboration with the heritage council to achieve the end result, especially in choosing paint colours and techniques used.

“We had to use certain types of breathable paints as opposed to the standard acrylic paint,” he said.

“The hard part was pulling back all those layers of old paint to get the walls to breathe.”