This has been a long-running task within the station restoration project. The seat slats have been rebuilt salvaging as much of their original New Zealand Kauri timber as possible and have been repainted in the red-brown colour (Hereford Bull) specified by the project’s Conservation Architect.
The shaped vertical forms that make up the seat posts and backrests were in quite poor condition so the restoration team built new ones using the originals as templates. This took hours of glueing, filling and sanding on each one to get the shape right.
The undercover waiting area at Yarra Glen Station was previously asphalted and required resurfacing with new asphalt. However, experience informed us that the new seat posts would not anchor well into the asphalt and over time would sink into it, so the team poured concrete strips that the seat posts were bolted into afterwards to give them a proper base to rest on.
We’ve still got a final coat of paint to put on but the winter weather has put a little too much moisture in the air for the paint to take properly in some spots, so we’ll be putting the final touches on this job when it warms up a bit. There’s still plenty to do at Yarra Glen Station while we wait!
The Yarra Glen Station restoration team holds work days on Mondays & Tuesdays each week. If you’d like to get involved, please visit the Volunteering page to find out more.
