Restoration Australia on ABC – King Island can be sun kissed and beautiful one minute and storm-ravaged the next.
It takes a particularly stoic individual to deal with the unpredictable forces rolling in and over the remote island hunkering off the north-west coast of Tasmania, let alone one prepared to wax wistful and nostalgic about an idyllic life there.
But father of three Gordon, long settled across the Tasman in New Zealand, remains a proud King Islander to his core and when an opportunity arises to acquire an old weatherbeaten farmhouse once owned by his uncle, Gordon can’t resist the siren call of his childhood home.
He cajoles his sister into a minority partnership and buys the cottage and farmlet on King Island’s wind-smashed north, then proceeds to hatch one of the most terrifying, white-knuckle restoration plans we’ve ever witnessed.
Gordon declares he will bring the dishevelled timber house back to its upstanding original shape in just 6 weeks.
He assembles a FIFO flashmob of NZ tradies, summons local friends, helpers and barrackers, conjures Public Service flow chart management systems, builds a chaotic work camp and prays to his King Island ancestors for clement weather. What could possibly go wrong?
Well as the fate of many seafarers and passengers can attest in and around Australia’s biggest shipwreck graveyard, a lot can go wrong. And fast.
Host Professor Anthony Burke joins Gordon and his ragtag army working against the clock, the elements and dreadful malodorous forces to save an authentic slice of King Island’s heritage. There’s a pocket of King Island called Pearshape. It doesn’t need another.
Production credit: A Fremantle production for the ABC. Supervising Executive Producer: Brooke Bayvel. Executive Producer: Michael Collett. ABC Executive Producers: Madeleine Hawcroft and Jo Chichester.
Restoration Australia on ABC and ABC iview – Thursday 30 May at 8.00pm
TV Central ABC content HERE
RelatedPosts
