The latest round of renovations to Capital Hill's St Andrew's Church have cost about $500,000 and are expected to be completed by the middle of this month.
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Scaffolders, masons and repointers have been hard at work since early September to refurbish the sandstone facade used to dress the bell tower and spire during its construction in the early 1930s.
John Armes, the heritage architect who has been overseeing the church's preservation since the early 1990s, said the work had been complex, expensive and time consuming.
Modern-day occupational health and safety standards meant a sophisticated web of scaffolding had to be woven around the bell tower and spire to ensure the craftsmen had safe access to their work site.
The scaffolding alone accounted for more than half the cost.
Despite the recent spate of wet weather, work is on track to be completed in ample time for the Christmas church services.
Mr Armes, who said the church was one of his last tasks before he retires early next year, began work on a conservation plan for St Andrews in about 1993.
Concerns had been raised about public safety in the 1980s after some pieces of decaying concrete, used in conjunction with the sandstone elements of the facade, fell to the ground.
This had prompted fears visitors or parishioners might be struck and injured, or worse. He said he had enjoyed his association with the structure and that it was a high note to be going out on.
As with many Canberra icons, there is more to St Andrews than meets the eye.
While it looks, for all the world, like a Gothic stone cathedral soaring above State Circle, the church is actually made of double brick.
Once the shell was completed it was dressed with sandstone cladding brought in from Sydney.
''This is a modern building with Gothic overtones,'' Mr Armes said. ''This means it is much stronger than it would be (if it was built entirely of stone).''
By adding the sandstone and concrete fenestration the original designers engineered an extra level of complexity that has created some unique problems. Over time water was able to enter wall cavities and sections of stone and concrete fell away.
Major restoration works carried out to date have included repairs to roofing, gutters, drainage, plumbing, external and internal finishes and the restoration, and protection of, the highly significant stained-glass windows.
Those windows were funded, in large part, from ''two bob donations'' by the Presbyterian ladies of NSW in the Depression years.
The main body of the church was repointed during the 1980s as part of a $500,000 plus Bicentenary project.
ACT Heritage Unit inspectors have praised the works carried out to date, stating ''all restoration work (has been) completed in a sympathetic fashion that has maintained the physical integrity of the place.''
St Andrew's spokesman Hans Sommer said it would be difficult to overstate the value of the contribution Mr Armes had made to the preservation of St Andrews over more than three decades.
He had produced the original conservation plan, which has now been updated to take into account the work that has already been carried out, and listed the priorities.
''This allowed a works program to be drawn up,'' Mr Sommer said.
''John's work also put us in a much better position when it came time to seek government assistance.''
Mr Armes said he was pleased with what had been achieved.
''Once this [the repointing of the tower and spire] is finished we will have stabilised St Andrew's for the next part of its life.''