New lease on life for SA’s property relics

They were once pillars of their community but the humble corner stores, butcher shops, post offices and small factories are disappearing as suburbs and towns evolve.

They haven’t been forgotten though, with many being reincarnated as people snap them up and breathe new life into their historic foundations.

Some are simply being fixed up and preserved, while others are being transformed into unique homes or businesses.

Denise Starr has poured her heart and soul into restoring an old Gladstone butter factory after purchasing it in 2023.

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Denise Starr bought an old Gladstone butter factory to restore and preserve it. Picture: Brett Hartwig.

Passionate about historic properties and their importance in society, Ms Starr bought the crumbling building simply to fix it up.

“I basically bought it because I absolutely loved it, I fell in love with it and I was quite motivated to preserve the building,” she said.

“I did put a lot of work into it myself and, with a stonemason, did a lot of repairs.”

It was built in the 1880s as a town hall and served many purposes over the years, including as a rollerskating rink, before becoming the R.J. Finlayson Butter Factory in 1922.

Ms Starr said they restored the original stonework to preserve the building’s core structure and it was now ready for its “next phase”.

While much too big to be turned into a home, she said it could serve as an art studio, a cafe or a workshop with a small residence added to the 1100sqm property, subject to council consent.

A former blacksmith, cobbler and butcher at Mintaro has been turned into an impressive residence. Picture: realestate.com.au

Ms Starr said preserving buildings like it was “100 per cent vital” because they formed part of the fabric of Australia’s identity.

“Once they’re gone, they’re gone forever, then you start losing huge chunks of history,” she said.

Other examples of revitalised heritage buildings include a former blacksmith, cobbler and butcher at Mintaro that has been converted into a residence; an 1860-built railway station that has been turned into luxury accommodation; a former butcher shop-turned-house at Wilmington; and a Malvern warehouse-style home that was once a converter station providing electricity to the Unley Road tram line between 1926 and 1955.

Ray White Clare Valley principal Mark O’Meagher agreed they were important parts of a town’s heritage and any investment in them showed people cared about them and the area.

He said they were still highly sought-after but getting harder to find.

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A Malvern warehouse-style home was once a converter station providing electricity to the Unley Road tram line between 1926 and 1955. Picture: realestate.com.au

“There are not a lot of properties left in those sorts of towns that haven’t been … worked on,” he said.

“We’re getting to the point where most properties have been converted into homes or they’ve been updated.

“Those towns that have got really old stone buildings, a lot of them have been looked after really well.”

Mr O’Meagher said some were more popular than others, with heritage listings sometimes putting buyers off because it restricted what they could do to a property.

He said interest in a two-storey stone building he was selling in Auburn that combined a shopfront post office with a three-bedroom home was strong, but finding someone to take on the business side of it added another layer of complexity.

An Auburn property is offering both a home and shopfront post office business. Picture: realestate.com.au

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