In recent years, I’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve featured stories on talented, artistic individuals who have a passion for re-cycling, re-using and re-purposing items in their own homes.
But recently, I got to discover the Nirvana for all things reclaimed – The Salvage Yard in Castlemaine, which will feature on Better Homes and Gardens tonight. This place is unparalleled… It’s the holy grail – 7 wonderful acres of the world’s neatest, most organised array of reclaimed building materials. I couldn’t think of one item that I couldn’t find, and discovered a zillion more I never would have imagined existed in this beautiful regional town. I was in heaven.
What you’ll find wandering the yard
Sure, there are some things you might expect… extensive racks of timbers in an array of different lengths and sizes. Everything from recycled heritage floorboards to highly coveted wharf and railway timbers. There are several thousand doors and windows – including leadlight windows of all proportions, and loads of recycled light fittings, toilets, baths, barn and oversized factory doors, tiles, storage containers, old furniture, roof trusses, steel beams, gates, as well as a huge selection of preloved bricks.
But on the day we visited, there were also reams of ocean liner ropes, cheese-making vats (one that was about to be transformed into a plunge pool). A huge boiler was being repurposed by a clever creator who had plans to convert it into an enormous pizza oven. There were massive slabs of laminated glass that had been pulled out of Federation Square, gigantic riveted boilers – one that had been earmarked to be turned into an oversized hot tub, and another into a private walk-in-shower, and several more into oversized planter boxes and fire pits. There was even an entire silo up for sale.
Meet the visionaries
The Salvage Yard is the passion of Anna Winneke and Matt Boyle, who have devoted the past 25 years to rescuing building materials from ending up in landfill, and then, importantly, educating the public on how to use the materials in their home designs.
Why people come
They estimate that the majority of people who seek out `The Salvage Yard’ are doing it from an ethical stance more than being driven by their budget. But they get a certain buzz out of finding others who can see the beauty in previously loved materials.
A home built from reclaimed treasures
In fact, they’ve even gone a step further and built a home on the property that they use to show visitors in a very real and tangible way how you can incorporate reclaimed treasures into your home design. Almost the entire construction has been completed using finds within The Salvage Yard.
The raised house is constructed using 30 old wharf poles from a local bridge. The exterior is clad in old disused street signs, all shingled and overlapping like a Rosalie Gascoigne artwork. The kitchen benchtops are made from old bowling alley timbers, with all the original alley markings celebrated. The canoe that hangs above the kitchen bench was found abandoned under a Melbourne home and is now a spectacular light fitting and an instant conversation starter. The internal wall linings are made using the shorts of baltic pine flooring, with many bits proudly bearing the Black Japan staining (that was originally used to protect uncovered timber floorboards where they met the walls of a room). The floorboards of the main area are offcuts of the increasingly rare Kauri pine, which emanates a gorgeous honey colour as the light bounces around the room.
Even in the garden outside, the raised wicking beds are repurposed copper heating tanks that were pulled out of Melbourne student accommodation, and the dry walls are constructed using broken bits of concrete sidewalks.
Help, advice and craftsmanship
Not surprisingly, loads of artists stay in close contact with Matt to get first dibs on some of the bigger, more sculptural pieces that come in regularly, and he is open to having discussions with anyone about what it is you are looking for and how he might be able to help you solve a problem. They have talented steel fabricators and Timber machinists on-site and even manufacture trusses. Everyone who works there is either a qualified (registered) builder, carpenter, building and garden designer, or other owner/Builder types. They guarantee that if they can’t help you directly with a query, they can put you in touch with someone who can… and yes – they can even help you organise delivery.
A word of advice
Don’t call and haggle on price and ask why some items are more expensive than, say, a mass-manufactured bargain at a large hardware or Scandinavian homewares store. Whilst you absolutely can find bargains aplenty as you wander around like a kid on a treasure hunt… You will also, in many instances, pay for the privilege of having something rare, long-lasting and occasionally weathered. That’s because you won’t find it in those stores you are comparing prices with. But for the quality, the history, and the beauty of what you will discover–I believe it’s worth it.
You can follow @thesalvageyard on Instagram and Facebook.
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