The restoration of historic Mill Cottage has been a journey of eclectic discovery, artful repurposing and the unearthing of history, as it continues to capture the imagination of local townsfolk and serve as a homage to yesteryear.

Words & Images_ Simone Gonzalez

Mill Cottage may occupy a modest piece of the historical heart of Tenterfield, but it has never been a place that has been short on garnering attention from the locals. Known affectionately over the years as the ‘wonky house’, this wasn’t exactly a character trait that new owner, Ashe Ferriman was prepared to embrace. Perched on old tree stumps which were rotted out from the ground down, the heritage listed house, with its high and low points in just about every sense, was in need of a whole lot of love. “(It’s crookedness) troubled me some, because obviously it was my place now and I take great pride in these things, so I went about really straightening it up,” Ash says. So the carpenter and multi-skilled tradesman from Byron Bay set about digging up and replacing the accessible middle and front stumps underneath the house, which he admits was akin to pulling loose teeth. It was during this process that he stumbled across a repository of various curios. “There was some pennies under there from back in the 40’s, glass bottles, there were rat’s skeletons, snakes skins. There was all sorts of crazy stuff.”

Yet despite its many quirks and time-weathered bones, Ashe had been enamoured by Mill Cottage from the moment he first set foot in its door. As a firm believer that growth comes from leaning into the edges, he was determined to make Mill Cottage his own and return it to a former glory and honour it with a reverence and an elegance that he felt it deserved. “It just really sang a song to me and it compelled me in ways where I saw it as the perfect bones to create something very special with. It was old, it was neglected, it was in need of all sorts of enhancement in a lot of areas. At the same time the lady who previously owned it was a good designer in her own right. She had put some cool furniture in it, got some old books and she had some great touches in there,” Ashe explains.

Continuing the former owner’s predilection for a vintage led, character infused aesthetic, Mill Cottage as it stands today, after a 3 month renovation journey alongside Ashe’s good mate, is now deliciously rustic chic with all the comforts. Think tactile wallpaper emulating pressed tin, an assortment of heating options and lush bedding designed to rock the most restless of us into a beckoning slumber. Eclectic treasures can be found at every turn- an original Weetbix cereal tin, a meat safe and an insect repellant pump as old as Methuselah, are just a sprinkling of the many objects found within that tell a much larger and richly layered story of yesteryear. Flamboyant vintage posters, black and white photos of the historic Tenterfield surrounds and outdoor signs adorn the walls, and there’s a smattering of paperbacks to curl up with on the lounge from a window that Ashe has artfully converted into a bookcase.

*Iconic neighbouring property ‘The Mill’*

Mill Cottage revurberates with an unabashed nostalgia and creative expression which has inspired many acts of spontaneous discovery in the process. A second hand - bric a brac sign north of Jennings on the New England Highway was the catalyst for Ashe stumbling across a huge collection of vintage treausures up for sale which have become an integral part of the cottage’s features, fixtures and overall styling. Many of the brass lights in and around the cottage were discovered in what Ashe describes as a ‘secret section’ there and ‘Frankensteined’ together to create an authentic look, clearly not able to be bought straight off the shelf. The conversion of an old abandoned sign from the Deepwater pub into an island bench in the kitchen, was initiated by a trip to Glen Innes one day, which had Ashe jumping a fence and skittering across a paddock to peel it away from the clutches of the landscape. “I just scuffed it up a bit more and trimmed it down and it works perfectly. I put a layer of glass on top as well. It provided accents of red to compliment the surrounding blue and timber and brick,” he explains.

*Mill Cottage fence overlooking town stores*

During the renovation, Ashe has been increasingly thrilled by the artistry of what he can create and how the right balance of elements - colours, textures and composition can come together in exciting ways to accomplish the feeling of ‘really nailing it.’ His process has seen an overhaul of most of the rooms in the house and an array of special features put in place with the intention to thrill future guests. Ashe has welcomed a previous owner’s move to remove an unsightly sunroom which had been added to the front, and has replaced all the decking there where it had once sat, all warped underfoot. He has also created a balustrade at the front, an undercover area on the back lawn, the soundproofing and wallpapering of the bedroom walls where there was originally only 30mm of hardwood as well as creating an outdoor bath and shower area. Honouring the heritage theme, the colour of the vertical boards at the front of the cottage has been taken from the heritage colour chart, along with the juxtaposing green front door which has attracted many positive comments from the locals. The traditional style of charcoal and bone white coloured checkered tiles have been laid from the stairs to the entry which give a nod to the Federation and Victorian eras.

Delicious dishes from Tenterfield Corner Cafe just across the road

Yet it’s this striking facade that has been perhaps the greatest source of pride and contention for Ashe along the way. Initially he was set to put fibre cement over the vertical boards with joining battens in-between to replicate that look that went vertically, only to be met with the disapproval of a representative from the Heritage Society NSW. In hindsight Ashe feels very fortunate to be challenged on the matter and grateful to have followed her sage advice, which proved to be an extremely labour-intensive process yet thoroughly rewarding. This entailed pulling all the joiner strips and vertical timber out from the front, sanding them back to bare timber, re-treating and painting them. “Because when I actually took that fibre cement off, behind it was all flaky paint - it was all lead based paint. It was really nasty. But the lady knows her stuff and it’s probably the best thing I’ve done on that property,” Ashe explains.

Digging a little deeper still and there was yet more to unearth at Mill Cottage. The property has in part, gained Heritage Listed status as a former residence at birth to a decorated war hero by the name of Oliver Woodward who was called to World War 1 in Belgium, 1917 essentially as an untrained soldier and an civilian miner. He was recruited as part of a mining battalion who had acquired his skills in the local Tenterfield area and took part in a secret mission with 10 others to dig a series of tunnels below the surface of a a hill with a German machine bunker on top. Oliver helped to disrupt a stalemate to aid the advance of British troops on the Western Front and was the one to flick the switch on the biggest explosion the world had seen to date. The original story for the movie, came from a diary he wrote documenting the events as well as his life back home in meticulous details, which had been buried for 90 years in Qld, discovered and the story made into an Australian movie, Beneath Hill 60 (released in 2010).

Tenterfield is a place where historic gems and legends abound - the likes of Banjo Patterson, Sir Henry Parkes and Peter Allen are just some of the icons to be discovered here, alongside a rich indigenous history and its preserved artefacts - all of which are deeply etched into the Australian cultural landscape. Mill Cottage is well placed for guests within the heritage precinct of Tenterfield to discover this history within a richly educational experience and to enjoy all the architectural delights of yesteryear. The act of walking down the main street also skirts close to stepping back in time as guests enjoy the warmth of a local community reminiscent of a refreshingly simpler way of life.

“Everything about Tenterfield just resonated with me,” Ashe explains. “I felt those old values of trust, respect, friendliness, and a certain simplicity about life and an openness that really excites me about being a man in the world. The locals want to have a chat and share information without looking at you like you have two heads! I also love that Tenterfield has indigenous people in it and that they are really accepted and in good spirits and part of the community in a healthy way. That brings a lot of joy to me. I’ve seen it so many times around the town. It just emanates friendliness. It’s like a little gift amongst all the towns you go though and just forget about - it’s got a lasting presence in your memory. You can be there without distraction, influence, pressure. No one’s requiring anything of you. You can just be there, completely at peace.”

Mill Cottage

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