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The Great Cobar Museum at Cobar, a small mining community, was always the most prominent building in this township, an eight-hour drive north-west of Sydney.

Complete with a grand arched portico, the two-storey red-brick building, completed in 1912, originally functioned as the administration offices for the adjacent mine.

However, when Dunn & Hillam Architects first inspected the building, many of the windows had been boarded up and most of the ground floor was given over to storage, including mining artefacts dating from the early 1860s through to the 1970s.

The Great Cobar Museum, in the north-west of NSW

“It was used as a boarding house from the 1930s and even by the local radio station,” architect Ashley Dunn, co-director of Dunn & Hillam Architects, who worked closely with co-director Lee Hillam and heritage architect, Peter Freeman, says.

Commissioned by the Cobar Shire Council, the Federation-style-museum is now a drawcard for both locals and those travelling from further afield to understand the history of this mine, the early community and the many artefacts left behind.

“There was a considerable amount to work through, both in terms of revealing the original structure and the multitude of objects,” says Hillam, who worked with 3-D Projects for the exhibition installations and Somewhere Landscape Architects to regenerate the grounds.

Recipient of the Adaptive Reuse Award and the Emagn Award, both from the Australian Institute of Architects (NSW Chapter), and numerous awards from the National Trust, the accolades also include the contribution made by young and emerging architect, Rose Davies, a colleague with the practice.

While Dunn & Hillam created a new ramp (previously a road) and reinstated a side verandah, the fabric of the original building can still be ‘read’.

“We wanted to avoid covering up the ‘scars’, preferring to unveil the history of the built form,” says Dunn, who even retained some soot marks on an exterior wall where there was once a fire.

One of the initial concerns by council was that there would not be sufficient space if partitions blocking windows were removed, reducing the opportunity for displays.

However, a series of strategic moves, including opening up some rooms with new arches which were clearly delineated as new by being lined with ochre red steel, allowed for more than sufficient room for exhibits.

“The form of the displays was inspired by old photos of the mine,” says Hillam, pointing out an old black and white photo of the columns supporting the mine’s entrances.

Some displays, such as a timber and copper plinth, were designed by the architects, picking up the colour of the copper extracted from the earth.

The Great Cobar Museum, in the north-west of NSW

Many manoeuvres made by the architects appear integral to the original design, including the arched windows framing one of the exhibition spaces.

This was formerly an enclosed balcony, with the upper part of the window retained while the lower part, previously aluminium, now framed with timber.

A lean-to, once accessed from a doorway under the main staircase, had to be completely removed as it didn’t meet today’s standards.

“The entrance led to a small cavernous room that was conceived to emulate a sense of being in a mine,” says Hillam, who compares that first experience to being similar to entering the world of Narnia (a children’s book series).

The entire ground level is now given over to the museum, while the space on the first floor is mainly used for archived material.

And, as with many museums, where things are staged, there are plans for a large separate coach house at the rear of the property to display vehicles, and a third stage that will emulate a mining experience for visitors – a sense of what it’s like to be underground.