From Bega's first town hall to tabletop gaming venue, 99 Carp St has seen a lot in its 100 years.
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The red brick building on the corner of Carp and Canning St has also seen better days if the cracks in its outer walls and subsidence of the front corner are any indication.
However, last week saw just another step in restoring its former glory by owners Cindel and "Wizard" Brendan White.
Passers-by were intrigued with the workmen in high-vis - and one in a full biohazard-style suit - propping up the walls and digging around the foundations.
The crew from Mainmark were hard at work, raising the building using hydraulic hand jacks, and injecting a resin that sets harder than rock in order to close up the significant cracks that had formed on the outside walls.
In fact the whole wall was being raised by several centimetres to rectify the issues.
Watch how Mainmark's Teretek resin injection process works:
The work is nothing out of the ordinary for Mainmark, indeed it was likely rather humdrum, given their previous contracts have included extensive efforts in Christchurch after the 2011 earthquake.
One in particular was the re-levelling of the Christchurch Art Gallery, a 33,000-tonne building that in some places had dropped by up to 182mm due to ground liquefication in the deadly quake.
Of course that project involved much more than a few bottle jacks and cracked mortar!
The resurrection of the gallery won the International Project of the Year at the 2016 Ground Engineering Awards.
Watch the video below to see how they managed to bring it back to "gold-plated rating".
History of Bega's first town hall
Brendan and Cindel White say the building they have owned for the past two years turned 100 in September.
They bought it knowing it had some issues, but were keen to fix it up and restore it to its past glory.
"So many people have memories of this place," Cindel said.
"They would wander in while we were working on it and say 'I got married in that corner' or 'I remember being up on the stage there'.
"We would like to share that excitement with more people."
According to the couple, the building hadn't been shown much love in a while, with vines even growing up through the floorboards when they purchased it in September 2018.
"There were five full trips to the tip of green waste only just with what we pulled out of here," Cindel said.
They thanked the council for a contribution to the work given the building is on the local heritage register.
However, they are going further with their restoration than just the listed facade and red brick exterior.
"We want to bring it back to life," Cindel said.
"We've kept all the old light fittings, anything period we kept what we could," adding that they even rummaged around under the floor to find offcuts and leftover pieces of timber to repurpose for their renovation.
All the original floorboards have been retained and restored - painstaking work it sounds like as the couple spent several weeks on hands and knees sanding and removing all tacks and staples leftover from previous floor coverings.
The ancient wood stove still takes pride of place in the back room, as do all the vintage light switches and timber doors throughout.
The ceiling retains its horsehair plasterwork - except for one small section that could not be saved. Given the cost to match the section was out of reach, it now sports several huge colourful dice patching the hole in a funky nod to the building's more modern tenants.
What many may remember as Bega's first community hall and social venue, or perhaps as Magpie Music or an antique store for a time, is now home to the Tabletop Gaming Hub and Green Queen sustainable clothing.
The Whites say they are still seeing plenty of potential in the old building yet, with ideas of a rear courtyard and food van to see it once again become a social venue creating memories for a whole new generation.
"It's quite grand seeing it all come back together," Brendan said.
Ben Smyth
I have worked as a journalist since 2005 and am now Editor of Australian Community Media mastheads in Bega, Merimbula and Eden
I have worked as a journalist since 2005 and am now Editor of Australian Community Media mastheads in Bega, Merimbula and Eden
