Restoration Australia Season 7 Episode 6 ,
Restoration Australia S7E06,
Restoration Australia - Season 7 Episode 6,
Restoration Australia Season 7 Episode 6 ,
Restoration Australia ,
#RestorationAustralia
Restoration Australia S7E06,
Restoration Australia - Season 7 Episode 6,
Restoration Australia Season 7 Episode 6 ,
Restoration Australia ,
#RestorationAustralia
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00In the early to mid-1800s, building a family home in what was a wilderness of impenetrable
00:10forest in remote northern Tasmania was a triumph of optimism over adversity.
00:17Where was the labour?
00:19Where were the materials?
00:20Where were the skills?
00:21And yet, up it went.
00:23And now, as a band of brothers and a history nut attempt to save that house, the song remains
00:29the same.
00:30All these years on, where's the labour?
00:33Where are the skills?
00:34And with punishing winters and relentless weather threatening to crush their sunny optimism,
00:40where's the money?
00:45I'm Anthony Berg, a professor of architecture, passionate about buildings of the past.
00:51This is incredibly impressive.
00:54And what they can tell us about better ways to live in the future.
00:57This is very confronting.
00:59It's a ruin.
01:00It is.
01:01Join me as I travel the country, meeting homeowners embarking on the challenge of a lifetime.
01:06Restoring homes from the 1800s to the swinging 60s, looking to balance our rich cultural
01:13heritage with life in modern Australia.
01:17Here's a scene familiar to anyone who's explored the delightful pub cluttered precincts of
01:35Sydney's inner west.
01:38A charming period hotel heaving with happy punters and a spirited band pounding out some
01:47evergreen covers.
01:49We play blues, late 60s, early 70s material, Hendrix, Neil Young, Beatles, Stones, Kinks,
01:56etc.
01:57We just do it for a bit of fun these days.
01:59Rod McFarland sings and plays bass.
02:02His lifelong mate, Ned Kenny, holds up the other end of the rhythm section.
02:07And when their band, The Freaks, are playing, chances are Rod's partner, Susan Angel, will
02:13be in the crowd.
02:16I love going to see the band.
02:18They're very energetic.
02:19They play the music that I really enjoy.
02:22I was shocked actually the first time I saw Rod playing in the band.
02:25I think I fell in love with him a little bit more because Rod's a great performer.
02:31Rod and Ned have been tight since their school days, but it took fellow student Susan a lot
02:37longer to join the fan club.
02:45We met at high school.
02:47It was the beginning of year 11 we met.
02:49We were not interested in each other at all.
02:51He was a bit of a rat bag.
02:53I wasn't.
02:54I've changed.
02:55I'm much quieter now.
02:56No, he's not.
02:57He's not.
02:59But then we met in 2019 at a high school reunion.
03:03Both single.
03:04Both single at the time.
03:05That's right.
03:06We just kind of dug each other, didn't we, straight away.
03:08I think we just gravitated to each other.
03:11We did.
03:12And we've been together since then.
03:15So a pretty circuitous romance that set the two Sydney-siders on another circuitous romance
03:22with Tasmania.
03:24Rod said, let's go on a trip around Tasmania.
03:27And I was really, really keen.
03:28I've wanted to live in Tasmania for about 20 years.
03:31I want to buy a house in Tasmania.
03:34But then as we're journeying together, I thought, why don't we do it together?
03:39And then we found a place and we did it together.
03:42We bought it together.
03:44That place was a little house in a little hamlet in Tasmania's north, an hour west of
03:50Launceston.
03:51The beautiful village of Mole Creek.
03:53And I just said, actually, I couldn't seriously live in a place called Mole Creek.
03:57Like, because of growing up within Australian comedy, and mole was always, are you mole?
04:02So I was like, I'm not living in a place called Mole Creek, because I think my friends would
04:06just really take the piss.
04:10But the musician and the writer-academic turned yoga teacher overcame their misgivings and
04:16for four years skipped between their rented base in Sydney and their little getaway burrow
04:21in Mole Creek.
04:23They explored their beautiful Tassie surrounds and eventually, in another circuitous twist,
04:28they stumbled upon this.
04:33I was like, oh, I can't believe this.
04:36It's beautiful.
04:37I love it.
04:38It was a thing of potential.
04:40Lenna is a 150-year-old timber house in Forth, a sweet riverside village not far from the
04:47dramatic northern coast.
04:50Lenna was built in 1872.
04:54I think it's the oldest house existing now in Forth.
04:58And it is a really great example of what Heritage call Gothic rustic.
05:05And I love rustic interiors personally.
05:07It's a good word.
05:09Anything rustic means it's not quite too prim and proper.
05:12It's got an edge to it.
05:14It might have an edge to it.
05:16What it doesn't have is a kitchen or a bathroom.
05:20Just a rudimentary outhouse and a little church spirited onto the block from somewhere else
05:25for reasons that must have made sense at the time.
05:29I have no previous building experience, no.
05:32And combined with less than zero, like we are totally, you know, we're hopeless.
05:38It's novice hour.
05:39Yeah, we are total novices.
05:42Undaunted, in 2023, Rod and Susan paid $550,000 for Lenna because it was quite literally the
05:50house of, or more accurately, in Susan's dreams.
05:56I know this sounds a bit kooky, but I had had kind of a dream about this place.
05:59I was writing a science fiction story.
06:01A woman, she swims ashore anyway after a boat sinks and it's called The Last Boat and it's
06:06the last boat to Tasmania.
06:08It's post-apocalyptic.
06:10And she comes and she swims in and she manages to get out.
06:13And I imagined this house.
06:15When I saw it, I was like, oh, my God, that's the house from the story.
06:18I know that sounds weird.
06:23So often when prospective homes feel right, we say they speak to us, although not so often
06:30in quite the paranormal science fictiony vision conjured in Susan's experience.
06:36But Lenna is now theirs and they're determined to give the house and the heritage listed
06:40gardens a new future.
06:43And for two self-professed less than rank amateurs, that means getting the band back
06:48together.
06:51We can't say yes unless we have Ned on board.
06:56Ned normally is the drummer.
06:57We've known him for many years and he's a great builder and we trust his judgment.
07:03If Ned needs something, she hands it up to him so he can put something up there, hand
07:08things up.
07:09You're Ned's assistant, really.
07:10I'm like an assistant, yes.
07:11This is the biggest thing we've done together.
07:14Yeah.
07:15What could possibly go wrong?
07:18Oh, no.
07:19They've made a start, but where is everyone?
07:28There's a ladder.
07:32That looks like legs.
07:33There they are.
07:34G'day, Rod.
07:35How are you going?
07:36Good, Anthony.
07:37How are you?
07:38Sue, how are you?
07:39Good.
07:41You have a beautiful heritage house here on a gorgeous property, actually.
07:43You've started to sort of tinker around the edges with it a bit.
07:45Yes.
07:46Just tinkering so far.
07:47I can see it looks like it needs a lot of love.
07:50It's quite dilapidated, especially the exterior.
07:53The exterior is in all kinds of trouble.
07:56OK.
07:57The roof needs replacing.
07:58All right.
07:59That's a big one.
08:00It needs to be reinstated for heritage reasons.
08:02OK.
08:03Yeah.
08:04So, two chimneys.
08:05And this all has to be taken down and or scraped back and repainted.
08:09Yeah.
08:10But there's animals nesting.
08:11There's animals all living right through the place.
08:13I think they're having a great time.
08:14There's still vines up there.
08:16The house is heritage listed and, importantly, so too are the gardens.
08:22External restoration work, including landscaping this significant block, will need to be done
08:27by the book.
08:28The previous owner made a fist of some of the basic stuff, making sure Lena was back
08:33up on straight and stable footings and beginning to put power through the house.
08:37But that's about it.
08:38There's no plumbing, hence the drop dunny.
08:42Has anyone actually been into the loo here yet, the dunny?
08:45No.
08:46No.
08:47Haven't seen Gain.
08:48No.
08:49So there's a surprise waiting to happen in there, I'm sure.
08:50And all these external timbers are going to demand a lot of time and effort.
08:56This and corrugated iron down there, I mean, this is kind of the best of the worst of it,
09:05isn't it?
09:06Yeah.
09:07It is.
09:08OK.
09:09I mean, even with all that, though, it's a very pretty little picture that this paints.
09:12Yeah.
09:13Yeah?
09:14Yeah.
09:15I'm just worried that I see that corrugated iron down there and think, have you been underneath
09:18there?
09:19No.
09:20No.
09:21No.
09:22No.
09:23No.
09:24No.
09:25No.
09:26Sure, no cornices, no embellishments, no frippery to speak of, but there's a scale that surprises.
09:33The hallway, it feels good, you know?
09:35It doesn't feel too big, too small.
09:37It's kind of, like, generous.
09:38Yeah.
09:39It feels very comfy.
09:40I think, too, even the ceilings.
09:41They're not super grand, like a grand terrace or something, but this would have felt like
09:44a completely other world to people arriving to this home back in the day.
09:49Yeah.
09:50So quite special.
09:51The lack of ornamentation, if you like, in here raises the question about how authentic
09:56you want to be with this restoration.
09:58I mean, are we looking to find the answers to the lack of cornices, for example, or are
10:03you thinking, OK, a little bit more than's all right?
10:05Where do you find that balance?
10:06Well, I actually like the rooms and everything being very simple and plain.
10:10I actually like it because then what you bring to the space is the ornamentation.
10:15I don't necessarily want it to be a period house.
10:17I don't necessarily want to walk into rooms and feel like I'm in the 1870s.
10:22I want to feel that I'm in an eclectic, energetic, interesting environment.
10:28OK.
10:29Lena's downstairs roominess...
10:32Fairly modest staircase.
10:33Yeah.
10:34It's not big.
10:35Yeah, you can see not a lot of embellishment here.
10:37...all but disappears at the top of a quaint and quite narrow climb to the upstairs rooms.
10:43These roof lines, these are a bit of a dog's breakfast up here, aren't they?
10:46Sure are.
10:48Yeah, wow.
10:49So we're really up in the roof now.
10:50We're up in the attic space, is what it feels like.
10:53Very much the secondary rooms in the home.
10:58This is going to be a spectacular space, though, right?
11:00Look at the window sort of leading us out to that wonderful view.
11:04And yes, it is a cranky kind of attic space to inhabit, but that means it's also super
11:10interesting.
11:11Yeah.
11:12It's going to be a great bathroom.
11:13You can see the windows of the bath wing there, and the view is just going to be great.
11:17Magical.
11:18Magical.
11:19Yeah.
11:20They'll need to work a little magic and sleight of hand to get the existing layout of Lena
11:28to accommodate their dreams.
11:30That obstacle course of an upstairs ceiling will stay as it is, and hopefully there won't
11:35be too many bumped and bruised heads as Rod's dream bathroom goes in and the other two usable
11:41spaces are refurbed as bedrooms.
11:45Downstairs the footprint stays, but a back room will be transformed into a kitchen, a
11:50toilet will go under the higgledy-piggledy stairs, and the other spaces will be zhuzhed
11:55into a living room and dining room and a library, though I suspect that will double as a music
12:00room.
12:01Heritage regs stipulate the restitution of two towering chimneys, while the biggest challenge
12:07of all will be replacing the very precipitous roof, 45 degrees, an absolute no-go zone in
12:14the wet.
12:16Plans for the little church will wait for another time and a resuscitated bank balance.
12:22Why this project and why now?
12:25It's an adventure.
12:26OK.
12:27Yeah.
12:28We both love adventure.
12:29We're both quite adventurous people.
12:30I mean, that's what we like about each other, and we kind of, I wouldn't say we're no longer
12:35risk-takers as such, but we are very adventurous people, so yeah.
12:41You're living in Sydney right now.
12:43For the most part, yeah.
12:44For the most part.
12:45Commuting down here to do the project.
12:47Is the plan to move here ultimately?
12:48Yeah, we'll certainly spend the vast, the predominant amount of time here, yes, as opposed
12:55to Sydney.
12:56Yeah, yeah.
12:57For sure.
12:58What is your biggest concern right now about the project?
13:01Yeah, there is a concern with the budget.
13:03We started with a budget of around about $200,000.
13:07We've already got through quite...
13:08We're already...
13:09Sue's already laughing at you when you say that number.
13:12Because we've probably gone through quite a bit of that already, like at least $50,000
13:16maybe.
13:17No, not quite.
13:18Not quite.
13:19I think that we will realistically spend more than $200,000.
13:23OK.
13:24But hopefully not too much more.
13:25OK.
13:26So have you had it priced, the job?
13:27Do you know how much it's supposed to cost?
13:29No.
13:30No.
13:31We've got no idea.
13:32No, it's all bits and pieces.
13:33It's like an 1872 money pit then.
13:36Yeah, probably.
13:37Yeah?
13:38Essentially, that's correct, yes.
13:39Yeah, yeah.
13:40OK.
13:41All right.
13:42How long is it going to take?
13:43Somewhere between a year and a year and a half.
13:46I'm hoping about eight months.
13:47Eight months.
13:48OK.
13:49I'm more hopeful, optimistic.
13:50All right.
13:51So just so I'm clear, though, you're three months into the project, you don't actually
13:55have a budget figure in mind, and you're kind of still not quite sure of your scope of work.
14:02It doesn't really sound like a great place to start, and it would be great to get some
14:05more confidence in those numbers.
14:07Yeah.
14:08Yeah.
14:09We're trying to ignore that a bit at the moment, aren't we?
14:11Mm-hmm.
14:12But we probably can't ignore it for too long.
14:13No, it's going to come and bite you.
14:15Yeah, I think so.
14:20Rod knows better than most that riffing and jamming and making it up as you go along is
14:25a great and rewarding way to make music.
14:28It is not the way to restore a 19th century weatherboard house in an out-of-the-way corner
14:34of Tasmania.
14:35These two are going to have to get a practical frame around this project, a clear plan and
14:41a doable budget, otherwise they're going to end up in real strife.
14:45I suspect old mate, bandmate and builder Ned is the one to get this project back onto a
14:51steady beat.
14:59In the opening days of a northern Tasmanian winter, the chill is already biting hard as
15:07builder Ned gets his head around the dimensions of this project.
15:11Yeah, it's just a lovely, quiet, beautiful area, but yeah, it's not me.
15:17You know, it's cold and I live in Sydney.
15:23They've called me in originally as the builder, but I'm getting a little bit old for all the
15:28physical work, so I've just taken on more of a project managing role with it.
15:33It's their dream, they've got some great ideas, it just needs to be honed a little bit, so
15:38I guess that's my role.
15:39We're trying to keep it professional as much as possible.
15:42That's I think a good approach for the job, I guess, that, you know, just so the friendship
15:46doesn't get too, you know, strained.
15:52Ned plans to run this project remotely from his home south of Sydney, where he's a veteran
15:56of heritage projects.
15:58So he needs to assemble a clear and accurate blueprint of Lena and all its idiosyncrasies,
16:05including the mayhem of the second floor ceilings.
16:08He'll be on site for key moments.
16:11The jumble of figures going into his notebook aren't the numbers that have him concerned,
16:16it's the dimension of the budget.
16:18The original budget they had was way, way low, you know, probably short by about 50%.
16:27I'm still going through things in my head in terms of what they want to do, proposing
16:32to do, and what I think it's going to cost, and, yeah, we haven't had that conversation yet.
16:39As Ned heads back to the mainland to crunch the numbers and finesse a more plausible plan...
16:44Last time we were there I had to sleep with my beanie on.
16:47That won't do, that's all shorts, forget that drawer.
16:50Susan and Rod are packing warm for another run to Lena.
16:54Beanie, socks, jumpers, oh yes, a coat.
16:59I'm feeling very positive about this project, I don't think it's going to take us too long,
17:02I think we'll kind of, you know, we'll whip through it.
17:06Travel to and from Tassie is an undeniable cost, but I wonder if it's a clear line in their budget.
17:12So we're probably going to have to reduce the number of trips we have, or at least plan a little bit.
17:19Go fewer times, stay longer.
17:20Stay longer.
17:22Instead of staying a week, stay one and a half, two weeks.
17:25Yeah.
17:25Instead of going ten times, we might be able to pair it back to going seven times.
17:29Balancing act.
17:30Balancing act.
17:31See, here we go, off we go.
17:35Oh, I'm not done up.
17:37Full start.
17:47Rod?
17:48Rod?
17:49Yeah?
17:50Have you got some business to do in here?
17:53No, fortunately I don't.
17:56Boy, it's my lucky day, isn't it?
17:58It's D-Day at Lenna.
17:59Hello.
18:01Is there anybody in there?
18:04Dunny, demolition day.
18:06I don't think this has been used for half a century or so.
18:11It's a little bit unloved in here.
18:14Nah, it's not a keeper.
18:19Bye-bye.
18:22Turns out the outhouse wasn't a thunderbox after all.
18:26Sometime in the 1960s, it was plumbed to a septic.
18:30Still, it's got to go, although tradie Simon reckons the century-old
18:34corrugated shell might be worth holding on to.
18:37Oh, we thought we might just try and salvage a little bit of this old,
18:40really old lysate iron.
18:43We might be able to use some of this iron to make a feature screen or panel or something.
18:48Ditching this little eyesore isn't the most pressing task on the list,
18:52but it might be the most symbolic.
18:54No spiders?
18:57Oh, I've got a job to buy three more hens anyway.
19:04A pretty emphatic signal that it's time for this Spartan 19th-century house
19:09to make a few concessions to the 21st.
19:13Oh, don't do it!
19:19Ho-ho!
19:21Yay!
19:23Down goes the dolly.
19:25There's no regrets.
19:33No time for regrets.
19:36Such is life, eh?
19:39No time to relax.
19:42Yeah, I should have bought one of these places instead.
19:45Man.
19:47There's so much to be done.
19:50Oh, I see. You're sorting some crap out.
20:01It's getting nice and nippy out there, rather cold.
20:04Yeah. I'm going to make some risotto.
20:06Cool, I'll have some. Yeah, good.
20:08Excellent.
20:10Boy, it's cold.
20:12It's very basic, but the little church at the back of the block
20:15is a godsend for this low-budget production.
20:18A home away from home, not far from their home-to-be.
20:22There's a simple kitchen.
20:24We do have a good oven. Beautiful appliances.
20:26It's the warmest room in the house.
20:28It's actually the only room we can warm up.
20:30An even simpler bathroom.
20:32Homestyle. Yeah.
20:34Yeah, look, it's a pretty rudimentary way to live for the moment.
20:37A trady guest suite with luxe window treatments.
20:40Nice, fresh. Gaff tape.
20:43Even a yoga studio.
20:45I get to do my yoga here on the floor.
20:47It's the yoga studio as well. Yoga studio as well.
20:50And a main bed-cum-lounge room with industrial workbench,
20:54walk-in wardrobe...
20:56Yeah, I've got plenty of change of clothes,
20:58so that's good.
21:00..and more makeshift materials
21:02to cover up missing windows and random holes.
21:05Makeshift cover on the window there. Carpet.
21:09Yeah. And there's no window.
21:11There's no window.
21:13It's just a nice, breezy, fresh Arctic breeze
21:16blowing continuously.
21:18Blowing in through the top there.
21:20The church was plonked here as secondary accommodation
21:23by the previous owner.
21:25It's freezing, uncomfortable and bleak.
21:29But it means Lena itself is a clear, uncluttered workspace,
21:32and it provides plenty of inspiration
21:34to get this project done as quickly as possible.
21:37It's really not that comfy.
21:39Yeah, it's sort of like camping.
21:41And I kind of resent it a little bit.
21:43Within a day or two, I've adjusted.
21:45Yeah. And I've stopped whinging,
21:47although I can still keep whinging about the weather.
21:51As if it were needed, there's additional motivation.
21:55The church will be gradually cannibalised
21:58to patch the main house.
22:00Viable weatherboards stripped from the outer shell
22:02to replace rotten boards on Lena.
22:05This place is going to get colder and even bleaker.
22:19Well, that is a little bit worse than I thought it would be.
22:23Um, but that's...that's OK.
22:26We can replace that.
22:28Local chippy Stefan is opening what could turn out
22:31to be a Pandora's box.
22:33There really is going to have to be replaced.
22:36He's running his experienced eye
22:38over these weather-beaten weatherboards.
22:40The water's got up into here,
22:42and then in this spot here you can see
22:44that's where it's, um, rotted out the stud.
22:48And exploring behind them to see what could stay,
22:51what has to go,
22:53and if they're hiding any deeper structural dramas.
22:56New noggin.
23:00Old stud.
23:02And that...
23:05..that actually is waterlogged cos it's actually exposed.
23:10Like much of what's about to unfold here,
23:13the effort to strip, replace and renew the weatherboard skin of Lena
23:17will be a tag-team event.
23:19G'day, Stefan. Good morning, Ned. How you going?
23:22With Stefan keeping project manager Ned in the loop.
23:25Yeah, so all I've done so far
23:28is I've done an inspection of the side,
23:31the backside. Yeah.
23:33Yeah, and then I needed to call you
23:35to see what extent we're going to go with...
23:40..yeah.
23:41Yeah, cool.
23:42And Ned providing expert counsel from his home base south of Sipping.
23:48Obviously, you know, if we're ripping those boards out,
23:51you know, just get a bit of paint on the end grains
23:53of the existing boards, anything which is exposed.
23:55Yeah, I wasn't going to risk having anything that's fresh cut
23:59and then the weather getting to that.
24:06And as Stefan excises rotten boards,
24:09replaces them and bolsters any dodgy supports...
24:17..Rod taps in for the next shift...
24:23..taking on the daunting job
24:25of stripping and prepping the boards for painting.
24:28Other jobs require a greater level of skill than I have,
24:32whereas this, this is the laborious, you know,
24:36scrape it back and make it as smooth as possible sort of thing.
24:39Got to fill some gaps here and there,
24:41and then I just paint it.
24:43Yeah, it's something I can deal with.
24:45So this is my gig for the moment.
24:49There's so much to do.
24:52Don't look up, Rod.
24:53Just keep going one centimetre at a time.
24:57As Rod toils away within the narrow band of his restoration skills,
25:01cutting a lonely figure on his marathon assignment...
25:05I'm thinking of flying down early Monday morning,
25:07which means I probably won't get to sight
25:09till about 10.30, 11 o'clock.
25:11..the expert in the team is far away,
25:13busily trying to corral key tradies to the project...
25:16Are you happy to get up on the roof?
25:18..and it's a frustrating grind.
25:21It's been a bit of a struggle getting guys,
25:23getting trades in and people to look after the job.
25:26And also, too, I think some of the pricing,
25:29which has been coming in, has been really high.
25:31So I've had quite a few roofers come through that, yeah,
25:35they're just really expensive.
25:38Reroofing Lena is probably the project's biggest challenge,
25:42and delays will hold up key internal work.
25:45Along with long stretches of wet winter weather,
25:48Ned's contending with the drought of willing roofers
25:51prepare to tackle a pretty perilous job.
25:54It's just not having the network, to be honest with you,
25:57in the building game.
25:58It's always...
25:59It's definitely a bit of who-you-know type thing
26:01if you don't know anybody.
26:02We thought, you know, the first port of call was the local pub,
26:06and we just went down there and, you know, got a couple of schooners
26:10and tried to sort of ingratiate ourselves to the community,
26:15but we didn't get too far.
26:16Normally it's a good place to find out good trades
26:19and that sort of stuff.
26:20But everyone seems to be looking for trades,
26:23so, you know, we're all in the same boat, really.
26:32Oh, really? Gosh.
26:33Ned has managed to nail down a can-do brickie
26:37to help him with another big assignment.
26:45Yeah, right, OK.
26:47Wow.
26:48Nathan and Ned will be building Lenna's two towering chimneys
26:52that heritage authorities have demanded be reconstructed.
26:57Yeah. Yeah.
27:00Well, we're doing chimneys, so we're up high.
27:10If it's this tough pulling together a team to restore Lenna
27:14in the modern, wired, jet-connected world,
27:17imagine what it was like building the house
27:20in the century before last.
27:24In 1840, the forests around what would become Forth
27:28were as thick and impenetrable
27:30as the beard of its lone colonial resident,
27:33stubborn Irish immigrant James Fenton.
27:36Too hard to tame for other settlers who'd come and gone,
27:40but not Fenton.
27:41He bought 1,000 acres and set about ring-barking trees,
27:45severing their nourishment systems,
27:47slowly killing them and thinning the forest.
27:50Fenton, a gifted amateur artist,
27:52lived in a hut and commuted through his holding by canoe.
27:58A sortie to the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s
28:01convinced Fenton the legions of fortune hunters
28:04and the percolating towns would need materials for construction,
28:08and so he returned to Tassie to build his rough and ready holding
28:12into a timber supply powerhouse.
28:15Soon, he and his family would need a house of their own.
28:19Lenna.
28:20I'm really interested in that early colonial period,
28:23particularly in Tasmania,
28:25and I'm interested in what James Fenton did
28:28and didn't know about the area.
28:30I really want to know who built this house, why he did it,
28:34and what consequences and ramifications of what he did to the area,
28:39what they are and what the legacy of that is.
28:43With her history-related academic background,
28:46Susan knows her way around a research project,
28:49and a little like a gold prospector herself,
28:52here at Devonport Library, she's hit pay dirt.
28:55This is a book that James Fenton actually wrote himself,
28:58and it's one of two major works that he did.
29:02The other one was a sort of potted history of Tasmania,
29:05of north-west Tasmania.
29:07This book has got, which is his travails through the north-west
29:12and his time in Forth and other places,
29:16and he has got this incredibly romantic view of the bush.
29:21Lenna was built for Fenton in the early 1860s.
29:25The origins of the name remain unclear,
29:28although it is known to mean lion-hearted,
29:31or even less evocatively, dwelling.
29:34The origin of its timber structure is clearer.
29:37It was built near Fenton's forest operations
29:39on about three-quarters of an acre, or 3,200 square metres,
29:44home to James, his wife Helena, and their four children.
29:48It's long been considered a very significant house in the area.
29:53He is really waxing lyrical here.
29:57There really is a fascinating charm
29:59in exploring the primitive forests,
30:02where never before the footsteps of civilised man had been.
30:07Very interesting.
30:09Where the natural foliage, undisturbed by the woodman's axe,
30:13grows so luxuriantly, adapting itself to the situation
30:17as though vegetation were not altogether void of mind.
30:21So he is ignoring the fact that Indigenous people live there,
30:25but the other aspect of it is,
30:27he's really romanticising this beautiful forest.
30:30I mean, it would have been incredible to see it.
30:32He's a romantic, and he's also kind of naive,
30:37and it really interests me that he also,
30:40he will go on to develop ring-marking
30:43and will wipe out this forest.
30:46But he loves it.
30:48So it just shows this sort of dichotomy,
30:51and it is almost, we would say, hypocrisy now,
30:54but I don't know if you can be a hypocrite
30:56if you don't really understand what you're doing.
30:59In a sense, he doesn't really understand.
31:04There's no doubt Fenton left an indelible mark
31:07on vast tracts of country around the Forth River,
31:10and he was part of a colonial mindset
31:12that saw land for the taking and Indigenous occupants
31:16as an impediment.
31:18Death and displacement were tragic consequences.
31:22Now, a couple of hundred years on,
31:24a new story is being written.
31:27G'day, Dave. How are you going?
31:29Yarr, Anthony. That's hello in our language.
31:31And palinga-na, welcome.
31:32So yarr palinga-na, welcome here.
31:34Fantastic. I feel welcomed.
31:36Good.
31:37Dave Goff's ancestors were forcibly removed
31:40north to Flinders Island in the Bass Strait
31:42in the early 1800s,
31:44but returned to what's now nearby Devonport
31:47around the time Fenton was cutting his swathes through here.
31:51In 1997, on this river, we registered a site
31:54that's at least 36,000 years of constant occupation
31:58until 220 years ago.
32:00And then over the years, with technology growing,
32:04the timelines grow.
32:05So we've gone from 30,000, 40,000, 50,000, 60,000,
32:09and now you're hearing the language
32:11of the longest ongoing culture in the world.
32:14We have 2,000 generations at least
32:17of imprinted stories in this country.
32:21Dave and other Indigenous elders
32:23are bringing time-honoured cultural know-how
32:26to the management and protection of this country.
32:29That's old law about how to live with the country.
32:32From those mountains up there,
32:34how country flows down through here
32:36into the mook of the ocean,
32:38and how all of the resources,
32:40how everything flows and why it should flow.
32:42We don't want to lose that.
32:44Everything that's on the ground here
32:47isn't just wood, it's habitat.
32:49It's trying to educate,
32:51try to encourage other practices
32:55for people and governments to look at
32:57other ways of people surviving here today.
33:01Sue and Rod are doing a lot of work
33:03obviously on their property,
33:04and I know they're very keen to find ways
33:06to respect and acknowledge Indigenous histories
33:08in the area.
33:09What do you think's the best way that they can do that?
33:12You know, relationships is really, really important.
33:14And if you get to meet Aboriginal people
33:16in your local area,
33:18for them to understand where their house sits,
33:20but also for them to look at some advice
33:22around what would they plant around the house,
33:25whether or not smoking it,
33:27making it a new start with their intentions.
33:30The house would be imprinted with a lot of energy
33:33and a lot of feelings where it sits.
33:35Help them understand how they can care
33:37for where they are as well.
33:39I love that. Go and meet people.
33:40Have a conversation.
33:43Scraping all over.
33:47Yep.
33:48Back on site,
33:49Rod's highly developed scraping and scrubbing skills
33:52have found new purpose.
33:54Chim chiminey, chim chiminey, chim chim three.
33:58All in all, it's another brick or four
34:01in Leonard's ever-soaring chimneys.
34:04Brick delivery.
34:07Chimney time.
34:10Chimney time.
34:14Ned and Bricky Nathan have made good progress on the rebuild
34:18and the stack is about to climb out into some rare sunshine.
34:22For the last six to eight weeks, rain almost every day.
34:25The backyard is just a...
34:27It's just mud and tyre tracks from vehicles going in.
34:31But, um, hoping for some warmer, drier weather
34:35from around about this minute on.
34:40Some of them actually have convict fingerprints on them.
34:43That's how they used to count them.
34:45Every 100 bricks, they'd put a fingerprint in it.
34:47I think so.
34:48So if you find one with a fingerprint in it...
34:50And they're actually worth a fair bit of money.
34:52They're a bit of a prized position.
34:53These are the good ones.
34:54These are the ones you want for that.
34:56To be seen from the streets.
34:58Yeah.
34:59Yeah.
35:00As work on site slowly inches ahead...
35:04..Susan's continuing her deep dive into Tasmanian timber.
35:09Well, today we're going to visit Paul,
35:11who has just some amazing chairs.
35:15And I haven't seen his chair collection.
35:18I know it's formidable.
35:20Her friend Paul is very different
35:22to colonial timberfeller James Fenton.
35:25He's in the timber preservation business.
35:28Paul has been collecting furniture for more than 30 years.
35:32And he does a great job at restoration.
35:35So I'm looking forward to seeing what he's got in there.
35:40If you see some colonial paintings and you'll see,
35:43yeah, the trees are just, like, massive.
35:46I mean, the area of Forth, the trees,
35:49they're reportedly massive,
35:51the area of trees along the Forth River.
35:54Yeah, it's amazing when you see the big old ones that are about it.
35:57They're very special.
35:59Paul's workshop is a veritable timber rescue centre.
36:03I thought I had a chair problem.
36:05And the collection is vast.
36:08Well, once you start a collection, well, you've got,
36:11you know, one is one, two is a pair, three is a collection.
36:15And then it just grows from there.
36:17This is one phase of Susan's grand plan
36:21to dress Lena's plain, unadorned interior
36:24with some character and quirk.
36:27No, we don't want...
36:28Your period of house is like these.
36:30Yeah.
36:31These chairs sort of match in with those balloon backs
36:33that I know you already have.
36:35Ooh, yes.
36:36These are like the standard Australian cedar,
36:40colonial spade-back chair.
36:43Yeah, yeah.
36:44They're all in varying states.
36:46They're not too bad, but they probably need pulling apart
36:49and, you know, putting back together so that they're strong.
36:52You want to work with the finish that's there
36:54and you don't want to, like, strip it all back to raw and start again
36:58because it's part of the patina of the piece.
37:00It's like he's in the finish.
37:03That sounds good because that's a sort of rustic approach too.
37:06But there's another dimension to Susan's furniture-rebirthing project.
37:11Are these original to the house?
37:13Yeah, from my understanding, they're all original.
37:16Wow.
37:17They're just gorgeous.
37:19She's commissioned another friend, Karen,
37:21to fashion an island bench, a table and other bits and pieces
37:25out of timber and artefacts salvaged from the house.
37:29Oh, wow.
37:31Look at the old newspapers on there.
37:35Oh, that's amazing, isn't it?
37:37I really trust Karen's aesthetic.
37:39I love what she does with all recycled timber.
37:42I love what she makes.
37:44Whatever she offers in terms of ideas for this house
37:47is really going to help.
37:49Look at that colour.
37:51I love that colour.
37:53I wouldn't mind one room being in that colour.
37:55We'll take inspiration from that.
37:57Yeah.
37:58It's just great also being with someone who's a bit of a forager.
38:01I'm a bit of a forager.
38:02We're foraging together and we're talking about things
38:05we're both really interested in and like.
38:07But Ned has a very strong vision and I have a very strong vision
38:11and Karen has a strong vision, so we'll see how it all pans out.
38:15It might even end up being, you know,
38:17if we did bookshelves in that other room,
38:19it might be bookshelves.
38:21That's perfect.
38:23Perfect idea.
38:25I'm making sure that I get my input in
38:28because the aesthetic I want to work for here,
38:31I really want that rustic aesthetic,
38:33so I'm really going for that, yeah.
38:35Oh, my gosh, look at this.
38:37What have you found?
38:38It's so funny.
38:39Marvellous new curling cap.
38:41Marcel waves any hair and you put on the curling cap.
38:46It's funny how you get sidetracked from looking at timber
38:49to looking at newspapers.
38:51Oh, yeah.
38:59Susan's furniture adventures help her to look beyond
39:02the pitfalls of the project to a time
39:04when her little dream home might be finished.
39:09Oh.
39:10Oh, dear.
39:12Oh, goodness.
39:13This is my favourite room as well.
39:15Oh, dear.
39:17It's a bit bigger than I expected, actually.
39:20But when it rains, it pours.
39:23Water came right through the floor up here.
39:26Oh, there's a part of it that's falling through here, too.
39:29It's all falling through.
39:31Oh, yeah.
39:32It's a reminder that the replacement of the roof
39:35is ever more urgent.
39:37It's gone backwards.
39:39Well, that's...
39:42So all we do is go backwards.
39:45And backwards.
39:46Oh, dear.
39:48But this mess might also be a metaphor for morale.
39:52I just felt like things haven't been moving.
39:55It just seems worse.
39:58The weather, the delays, the difficulty securing trades,
40:02the consequential impact on their budget,
40:05the sense that things just won't go their way,
40:08it's all pushed Susan to despair.
40:12This is this dream idea of having this home
40:16that I've always wanted to have,
40:18and I just felt everything was sort of obstructing that.
40:22And I think my enthusiasm just sort of vanished.
40:26I just felt like it was going to be a failure.
40:30There's so much we need to do.
40:33And Rod's very up all the time.
40:36I mean, he sees anything that's not working.
40:39It doesn't faze him.
40:40And I think Ned, too, they're very ebullient
40:42and sort of up about things,
40:44whereas I think this is more meaningful for me.
40:48Like, it's actually really meaningful.
40:54No.
41:00And so, with the exquisite timing of a rock-solid drummer,
41:04Ned moves to lift the mood.
41:07I want to get this wall done here,
41:09finished off, this external cladding, which has been gone.
41:12Sure, seal it out.
41:13The eternal external cladding.
41:14It just doesn't seem to be finished.
41:16So just for a bit of lift morale,
41:18we're going to get this wall done, finished.
41:20Great idea, yep.
41:21So when clients come out that door up there,
41:24they can see something beyond the mud pit.
41:27With Chippy and all rounder Marty,
41:29another of Rod and Sue's Tassie mates on the case.
41:33Yeah, meeting Ned was just a godsend.
41:35What was that?
41:36A godsend.
41:37Oh, we fell in love.
41:38I was almost bored again.
41:39It was fun at first sight.
41:40Yeah.
41:42Ned sets out to turn Leonard's down-at-a-hill backside
41:45into an uplifting wonder wall.
41:48That's the better.
41:50That's the better one.
41:53This will fit.
41:55Oh, nice.
41:57Beautiful.
41:58That is beautiful.
41:59Oh, yeah.
42:00Man, I've got to put a screw in here for this one.
42:06Thanks, Ned.
42:07That's all right.
42:08Thanks, Ned.
42:10Looks a lot better, doesn't it?
42:11And the roofing's ordered.
42:12And that's coming next Monday.
42:14Great, great.
42:15Yeah, and the roof is over here.
42:16And that'll really change it.
42:17Yeah, yeah.
42:19Literally the icing.
42:20Yeah.
42:25Finally, some real discernible progress.
42:29Leonard, the sad old queen of Forth,
42:31is finally getting her crown.
42:34A surprise cancellation means roofers Nick and Ollie
42:37have found a few days open in their tight schedule
42:40and they're installing a spanking new watertight roof.
42:43And as predicted, it's a tricky operation.
42:46You've got a 45-degree pitch roof,
42:48so there's a lot of velocity in the water that comes down
42:50because you've got all this roof space coming into one spot
42:54and you need to have enough healthy fall
42:57for all the water to be able to get out with ease.
43:02And it also needs to be very waterproof.
43:08A lot of heritage roofing is on that steeper pitch
43:11and some roofers find it challenging to work on steeper pitches.
43:15If you don't have a lot of purchase on the roof,
43:17if there aren't places to climb up the roof
43:20and sit on the roof and do the work,
43:22then that makes it very challenging.
43:25Finally, the site is buzzing with action.
43:28Ed's cracking on with the kitchen.
43:34Rod's scraping and scrubbing skills have moved to another dimension...
43:38Ooh, yeah, that's better.
43:40..as he gouges grout and preps Lenna's array of windows
43:44for new panes and paint.
43:46It's going to be a long day.
43:48Oh, boy.
43:50I'll just pop this up here, Harriet, for the mulch.
43:57And there's nothing like the arrival of the wider family
44:00and a working bee to further lift Susan's spirits.
44:03Having my daughter around always helps.
44:05Having just being in the garden, the sunshine.
44:08Look, Tasmania's finally offering us the most beautiful spring.
44:13And maybe have her thinking that the forever house she'd hoped for
44:17isn't going to take forever after all.
44:27It's hard to imagine two more different versions
44:31of the same rough and muddy trip.
44:34Rod's merrily whistling and singing his way through the hardships,
44:38shrugging off the dramas of the project,
44:40and Susan is feeling every twist and bump,
44:44taking it all so personally
44:46and worrying deeply about the fate of her very meaningful life.
44:51Personally and worrying deeply about the fate
44:54of her very meaningful dream home.
44:57Still, they've now both arrived at precisely the same destination
45:01and we're about to find out exactly where that is.
45:05Oh, look at this.
45:22Oh, I did not expect that.
45:35You finished.
45:36We did it.
45:37Congratulations.
45:38I mean, a minor miracle has occurred here in Forth, yeah?
45:41Yes.
45:42A major miracle, actually.
45:43A major one.
45:44It's a huge feat.
45:45I don't know how we've done it, actually.
45:47And look how beautiful it's looking,
45:49especially now that you've got the garden in and the terracing in.
45:52It's like you've created a beautiful frame.
45:54Little Leonard Cottage looks like it couldn't be happier with itself.
45:58White, bright and cheery.
46:00Ready to live another long life.
46:03It turned out a little bit more stately than I had imagined, in a way.
46:08We thought it was a country cottage sort of look
46:10because it was in such ramshackle condition.
46:13Yeah, it feels like a stately home.
46:15It feels like I feel a bit out of my league, actually.
46:18I feel a little bit like I'm an imposter and I shouldn't be here
46:22because it is so...
46:23Too invited us.
46:24Yeah, yeah, yeah.
46:25It is so much more than I expected.
46:29The roof, the tin on the roof now is looking just, you know,
46:32bing, beautiful.
46:34The chimney up there as well.
46:35I know a lot of work went into that.
46:37And I think even the veranda.
46:38I mean, this is so much better than I imagined it was going to be.
46:42The physical labour was much more intense,
46:45especially toward the end, you know, getting things finished.
46:49It was a race.
46:50But from that came a lot of joy.
46:53Like, I realised that the more you put in,
46:56the more satisfaction you get.
46:58And it made it worth it.
46:59The end result, I feel we deserve it in a way.
47:02Yeah, yeah, yeah.
47:03We've worked for it.
47:04You've earned it.
47:05Yeah.
47:06Well, it's beautiful here.
47:07What about inside?
47:08Come and have a look then.
47:09Let's do it.
47:16So, welcome to Lena.
47:18I'm impressed.
47:19I'm really impressed.
47:21This is the rustic you were kind of thinking about, right?
47:23Yes, yeah, very much.
47:24Yeah.
47:25Those arches, they're still a really unique feature of this home.
47:28They are, aren't they?
47:29It's kind of joyful in a way.
47:30I think so too.
47:31I do.
47:32Bit of whimsy.
47:33Yeah.
47:34And the hall's generous but not grand.
47:36Yes.
47:37But it's generous.
47:38Yes.
47:39Great proportions, yeah.
47:40Good proportions.
47:41So, you've got the kind of the mood of the house
47:43set up really beautifully in here.
47:45So, while it's nice and white and green with the garden outside,
47:48now we're getting a bit more of your personality coming through.
47:52Yeah, and the house has personality.
47:54Yeah.
47:55Yes.
47:56It's great.
47:57The scene of the collapsed ceiling is now a delightful, serene space.
48:01Earmarked originally as a library, as I suspected,
48:04this is shaped as more of a multi-purpose creative precinct.
48:08We can use it as a writing room.
48:10Rod's got his instruments in there.
48:11Lounge space.
48:12Astronomy room.
48:13Yeah, we'll probably have many uses.
48:15It's a really nice daytime space, I think.
48:17Yeah.
48:18Yeah.
48:19If it's ever double booked,
48:21there's a perfectly comfy lounge room across the hall.
48:24That fireplace has come up a treat.
48:29But don't get lulled into a false sense of understatement.
48:39What is this?
48:40Wow.
48:41This is unexpected.
48:42OK, I wasn't sort of imagining...
48:44No.
48:45..a mural of this scale in the room.
48:47It sort of really hits you in the face, doesn't it?
48:49Yes, it does.
48:50It's a depiction in wallpaper of 16th-century Dutch artist
48:54Andres Beekman's painting The Castle of Batavia,
48:58what would become Jakarta, Indonesia.
49:00It's a favourite of Rod's and, for Susan,
49:03a reminder of the roiling global impact of colonisation
49:07there and here.
49:09Before this house was even built,
49:11this was Indigenous land and Indigenous country and still is.
49:15I mean, and so I think having that reflection in the rooms
49:19and having that conversation and it can exist in a house as well
49:24and the house can be talking to that and I think it is.
49:26Yeah.
49:27So, yeah.
49:28It's a really interesting way to sit with both of those histories,
49:31to not try and resolve them necessarily
49:33but to let them be together in a space.
49:36Complicated.
49:37It's very complicated.
49:38But it's an extraordinary perspective to take.
49:41Paul's sweetly restored chairs
49:44complete a very eclectic colonial theme that somehow works.
49:54So this is a completely different space, the kitchen.
49:58Much lighter, isn't it?
49:59Yeah, it doesn't have the kind of the weight of the dining room.
50:03So, you know, all four rooms have their own personality.
50:06Yes, they do.
50:07And they all do seem to be talking to each other, though.
50:09That's the good thing.
50:11So this is the piece that Karen worked on?
50:13Yes.
50:14This is Karen's.
50:15Tell me a bit about this cos this is, you know,
50:16I mean, obviously it's the hero of the room.
50:18Yeah, for sure.
50:19Yeah.
50:20So this is hewn pine and it feels really silky and...
50:24Yeah.
50:25..but strong and it's very tactile, beautiful, very weathered and aged.
50:29Everything is salvage, repurposing
50:33and, yeah, it's everything that I love about furniture, yeah.
50:38The rich old timber is newly aglow on the narrow climb upstairs.
50:44Oh, it's great to see you kept this door, the door to nowhere.
50:49But it is a staircase to a pretty specky somewhere,
50:53given the constraints.
50:55They've managed to get their two bedrooms
50:57under that canopy of crazy ceilings.
51:02And then there's this.
51:05Now, this is a neat trick.
51:06You had to really work hard to squeeze this room in here, didn't you?
51:10I mean, it's totally eccentric.
51:12I love it. I think it's one of my favourite spaces in the house.
51:14Yes?
51:15It's just light and minimal, clean space.
51:19So, I mean, you've taken a really kind of awkward geometry
51:22and you've made something really interesting out of it,
51:25which is great.
51:26I mean, even the shower in the middle of the room,
51:28that was, I know, a kind of an interesting decision.
51:31Not the solution that you'd immediately think of
51:34when someone says, design me a bathroom,
51:36but that's what the space demanded.
51:38I mean, the thing that I really love about the room
51:40is it's really just very elemental.
51:42It's all about that composition.
51:44And that bathtub, that window, the view beyond, nothing more.
51:48Turned out really well, yeah.
51:50Turned out beyond my expectations, definitely.
51:54The results have surprised these two novices,
51:57but it's been quite an arduous trek start to finish.
52:02You're in?
52:03Yes.
52:04But this has been quite a rollercoaster, hasn't it?
52:06It has indeed.
52:07Oh, yeah.
52:08I mean, from a time perspective, you said,
52:10I think when I first met you, Sue,
52:12you were about, sort of in by Christmas, about eight months-ish.
52:15Rod, you were a bit longer,
52:16and you kind of landed in the middle of that.
52:18Give or take, yeah.
52:19Let's say it's been about ten months.
52:21Something like that.
52:22So it's kind of about what you thought,
52:24but it has been a much more difficult journey to get here,
52:27hasn't it?
52:28Yeah.
52:29It's been awful.
52:30It's been awful.
52:31But it's over now.
52:32Yeah.
52:33It's done.
52:34There was some fun here and there as well.
52:36Oh, yeah, a bit of fun, but mostly not fun.
52:39What about the stress of money?
52:41You kind of didn't really have too much of an idea.
52:44You said about $200,000.
52:45Yeah, yeah.
52:46Give or take.
52:47Give or take, yeah.
52:48That's what it would be, yeah.
52:49That was crazy.
52:50Blind optimism, we could call it.
52:53So can you give me your number?
52:55Where did you land up?
52:56Oh, look, I think we have come close to doubling that.
52:59Yeah.
53:00Close to $400,000 now, I think.
53:01Yeah.
53:02Financially, do you think it's been worth it?
53:04Totally worth it.
53:05Yeah.
53:06Yeah, like we're going to have this amazing property
53:08for a quarter of the cost that you could get it in, you know.
53:11Yeah.
53:12So I'm really happy with it.
53:13And the view, it's a very pretty little valley.
53:17The village sits in a gorgeous valley,
53:20and I just really love the view.
53:22This is a bit fairytale-like, isn't it?
53:24It is a bit, yeah.
53:25So is this home for you now?
53:27Yeah.
53:28Oh, yeah, definitely.
53:29Yeah?
53:30It's kind of unexpected.
53:31I've never heard, like, a community.
53:33Like, they actually come out and they come by the house
53:35and they have a look and have a chat.
53:37They're so excited.
53:38Everyone in the community has a photo of this house.
53:41Yeah.
53:42They love this house.
53:43Yeah.
53:44So that feels good that we're restoring something,
53:46and they're supportive.
53:47Yeah.
53:48So their opinions as they've walked past,
53:49what have they said?
53:50I love it.
53:51They go, it's so good to see this house,
53:54which has been in disrepair for so many years, decades,
53:57actually finally coming to life again and looking nice.
54:03It's just a very pretty place.
54:06In the end, it took a village to resurrect the Queen of Forth.
54:10A gaggle of friends and locals, led by Ned,
54:13stuck on the mainland for the big day.
54:16Thanks for all your great work here.
54:18It's turned out so nice,
54:19so when you get to see it, you'll be really proud.
54:22Fantastic.
54:23I really look forward to it.
54:24Catch up with you guys down there.
54:26You have an excellent night.
54:28Enjoy yourselves.
54:29I'll be doing my level best.
54:31Yeah, let your hair down.
54:33I might just do that.
54:36Finally, they can celebrate.
54:41Champagne is way too lively.
54:44It's hard to control, isn't it?
54:46It's a bit like me.
54:52Just want to thank all of you guys
54:54and Rod, absolute patience with me
54:57and with both of us have worked together
54:59and we're so happy and proud of this project.
55:02Just thank you so much and we're really grateful.
55:05This is an amazing home.
55:06Can't wait to actually sleep in here tonight.
55:09We're not staying in the old digs.
55:12You're going to miss it.
55:14No.
55:15But yeah, thank you.
55:16Enjoy, have something to eat, enjoy the music.
55:20Whether you're a bull-headed 19th century colonialist
55:24or a couple of 21st century dreamers,
55:27getting this simple weatherboard house
55:29into the kind of home you want
55:31was always going to be a complicated assignment.
55:34Susan and Rod endured everything
55:36that northern Tasmania rained down on them,
55:39overcame almost all the hurdles
55:41thrown up by the cranky restoration gods
55:44and finally got their place in the elusive sundown here.
55:48And now Lenna means more than ever to Susan
55:52and there are plenty of comfy corners
55:54for Rod to sit and sing a happy song.
55:57And I bet he will.
55:59Swimming on a rainy day
56:02Hey little fish with your big blue eyes
56:06Won't you come and swim with me
56:09Hey little fish, yeah
56:11Hey, hey, little fish, yeah
56:15Hey, little fish, yeah
56:18Hey, little fish, yeah
56:21Yeah
56:29Hey, little fish, yeah
56:32Whoo-hoo!
56:34Thank you, everybody!
56:36Good night!