A transformed century-old Queensland pub nestled in the birthplace of the Labor Party has been selected to represent Australia at an international architecture exhibition later this year.
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Standing in Barcaldine, east of Longreach, The Globe Hotel was built in 1910 and owned by a handful of local families before it was purchased by the Barcaldine Regional Council in 2011.
Wanting to revitalise the town, the council called in the help of Architecture firm m3architecture to transform the property, in association with Brian Hooper Architect, near where the famous shearers’ strikes of 1891 were held.
The town is widely regarded as the birthplace of the Australian Labor Party, with many of the strikers going on to hold public office.
Director Michael Lavery said the building, which sits on the junction of two major highways, was not heritage-listed but was considered integral to local heritage.
“When a building sits in that zone, as an architect, you get a surprising amount of flexibility to draw out what is great about it and add to it and change it if you want to,” he said.
“We had to rebuild the verandahs, they were decrepit ... but we largely kept the original timber structure intact.”
The original building was single-skin construction, which meant anyone could see and understand how the building was created, from how the frames were built to how the doors were hung.
“Everything about the building and how it is built is on show and that is a really lovely thing,” Mr Lavery said.
“In a way it is part of the bush carpenter heritage.”
“What we wanted to do, when we put openings in the building or when we added the verandahs back on, we wanted to continue that sense of being able to see how the building was built.”
With its internal structure left untouched, the pub turned hub houses the Tourist Information Centre, an art gallery, local history room and bank, with future additions likely to include a library and theatre space.
Mr Lavery said the rebuild had helped maintain the history of the town and the stories connected with the pub.
“When Kim Beazley was the opposition leader and he was preparing the Labor party to fight that election, he took the entire shadow cabinet to stay in that pub as a way of preparing them in the Labor heartland,” he said.
“It is really important for small towns, particularly Australian country towns, to retain some of our heritage because it is part of the reason those of us who live in the city want to go and visit, we want to see that character.”
The Globe Hotel was chosen as part of 15 projects from Australia to represent the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale theme “repair”.
The Biennale includes participants from more than 60 countries and will run from May to November 2018.
