The Development Program

Users of the Convent building may have noticed the busy gentleman in white overalls freshening up the interiors of the building over the past few months. The walls of the Convent building, which until 1975 housed the nuns of the Good Shepherd Order, are thought to have not had a lick of paint for over 20 years. The Convent building was the first to be occupied when the Abbotsford Convent Foundation opened the site as an arts, cultural and learning precinct due to its intact and compliant building fabric. Due to more complicent demands on available funds at the time, the Convent building has only now been able to receive a fresh coat of paint.

All public areas are now gallery white, with picture rails soon to be installed so the Convent tenants can adorn the halls with a bounty of their creative practice.

The lift lobby on the ground floor has been brightened up with a sculptural light fitting designed by Convent tenant, lighting designer Volker Haug.
 

The Federal Government, through its Jobs Fund (Heritage Projects) funding round – part of the 2009 stimulus package – contributed $1.75 million for works to bring the Sacred Heart Building restoration closer to completion. The Sacred Heart Building, incorporating the Industrial School and the Magdalene Laundries, occupy a 5100 sqm footprint of the site and represent the last  40% of  the site requiring significant work to make them open and accessible to more tenants and the public.

This Federal funding allowed for roof works, external timber painting, the make-good and painting of all windows, the installation of fire sprinklers, heating and electrical works to the entire building. This progress is a great achievement! Quite often, such ‘pedestrian’ but integral works can be hard to gain funding as they do not yield immediate outcomes. Much work (and funding) is still required to bring these spaces up to a point where they are compliant with contemporary building standards. It is envisioned that once restoration and make good-works are completed, the Sacred Heart precinct will house artisans with a retail element, a small theatre, spaces for the physical arts, office spaces for charitable organisations, artist studios, creative workshop spaces and much more - all set around the Sacred Heart Courtyard, which will one day be a busy little public square.

A great outcome of these works is the near completion of a ‘breezeway’ from the Sacred Heart Courtyard through the Laundries to the Mercator Building on the Eastern side of the site. This contemporary insertion will provide the public, for the first time, access through the core of the former laundries. Magdalene Laundries, once a common element of the make-up of Good Shepherd Convents over the world, have nearly all been demolished, with the Abbotsford Convent Laundries remaining one of the last standing examples of this type of institutional care, left in the world.
 

The 1896 bluestone chapel fronting St Heliers Street is still owned by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd and does not form part of the arts, cultural and learning precinct managed by the Abbotsford Convent Foundation . The Good Shepherd organisation is currently restoring this chapel. Visitors will see scaffolding and barriers surrounding the chapel, behind which works will continue over the next twelve months. As part of the building and restoration program, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd organisation is planning to open an interpretive centre outlining the history of their Order since arriving in Australia in 1863.

The Separation Tree, near the Southern-most corner of the site, was planted in 1850 to commemorate the 'separation' of the Port Phillip District from New South Wales, creating the State of Victoria. Edward Curr, the movement’s leader, lived in St Heliers House, located where St Mary's (the Sophia Mundi Steiner School) now sits. The Separation Tree, planted by Curr, is heritage listed as a rare and historically significant specimen of Quercus Oak.

Botanists recently diagnosed the tree as having less than two years to live due to a large community of possums progressively eating its new foliage. The survival of the tree depends on the restriction of possums entering the tree.

Fences have been erected around the branches of the tree, many of which reach the ground. Some electrification has been sewn through these fences in order to deter the possums, in addition to plastic sheeting surrounding the trunk. This solution has significantly decreased the ability for possums to access the tree. The Abbotsford Convent Foundation accepts that this solution is not an aesthetically pleasing one but has a duty of care to ensure the Separation Tree can continue to live on!
 

The Sidney Myer Fund, as part of the 2009 Commemorative Grants Program, contributed $1.1 million to restore the Mercator Building so that it can house ‘hard arts’ and industrial arts practitioners. While this funding was able to restore a significant part of the building, which has now been invigorated with 10 artist studios, there remains a 180+ sqm space that requires compliance work before being tenanted. Expressions of interested are encouraged from creative practitioners who are interested in joining the Mercator (and Convent) community. For more information, please contact Mirella on 03 9415 3600 or email info@abbotsfordconvent.com.au.

The landscaping around the Convent Annexe, which houses Lentil as Anything, Kappaya Japanese Soul Food and the Convent Bakery & Boiler Bar requires upgrades to make these outdoor dining areas universally accessible and safer for the public. The Abbotsford Convent Foundation is currently working on plans to install compliant ramps, rails and seating areas that will improve public access. The Foundation has received support from the City of Yarra and the Trust Company as trustee of the Fred P Archer Trust for partial funding of these works. More support is however needed.