open house hobart: the finale

Sunday 10 November 2019

part 1: supreme court

part 2: construction house & jarvis house

part 3: town hall, carnegie building & henry jones

part 4: riverfront motel

part 5: penitentiary chapel

part 6: treasury

After our tour of the Treasury complex and a quick sugar hit, Lil Sis and I made the drive out to Sandy Bay to visit our second Dorney house of the weekend, the house at Fort Nelson.

Esmond Dorney House, Fort Nelson

Perched on top of one of the fort’s old gun emplacements, this iconic 1978 house is a must-see on the Open House weekend. It’s about a 15-minute walk uphill, or you can wait for the shuttle bus, which is what we did.

I think I have this bit right. The first house that Esmond Dorney built on the site was in 1949, on the southern gun emplacement.

The flat out the back

He built a second house in 1966 on the current site, which burnt down in a bushfire caused by a neighbour’s burn-off. He replaced that in 1978 with the current house, which survived another bushfire that burnt the 1949 building.

Underneath the fort

The ABC recently featured the house in a tour with architect Leigh Woolley.

There are many cool things about this house. The view, obviously. (Not the wind.)

How good is the view

This wall.

So cool

The hidden bedrooms. And of course, the sunken lounge, the conversation pit.

Conversation pit

It was a fabulous way to end the weekend, sitting in the conversation pit listening to Paddy Dorney speak about his father’s work.

A huge thank you to everyone involved in organising it and all the fabulous volunteers on the weekend. It was one of the highlights of the year for me.

In and out

Open House Hobart 2019:

• 11 buildings
• 1 walking tour
• 48,000 steps
• 392 photos

PS: A couple of weeks after the weekend, I found out one of my photos of the Riverfront Motel had been chosen as a winner of the OHH Instagram competition, which was very exciting and entirely unexpected.

Glorious colours from the Riverfront Motel

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