The last gavel to be brought down in the Murrumburrah Court House was last century when the nation was marking it’s bi-centenary.

Local lady Nina Horton is on a mission to bring the building back up to speed and has just recently overseen the installation of a toilet upgraded to provide access for disabled people.

The next stage is preparing the external part of the Court House for work to be done. However, she said after looking at the issues closely, there is a lot of work to be done.

“The painting needs to comply with the heritage code regarding colours. It’s a big job and there has been a lot of damage. Some of the window sills will need replacing and there are leaks inside the building.”

The south eastern corner of the building has a lot of water damage and the $48,000 allocated will need to be increased if the work is to fix problems, not just mask them Nina is currently getting quotes for the flooring which is also damaged due to water and termites.

“It could be another $100,000 to get ready rid of the termites and to replace the mortar on the brickwork, most of the down pipes are blocked and they are the older style metal gutters. We had to stop the painter and have a really good look at the issues. We may have another $35,000 from July 1 and another $25,000 the following year. We have to do it in stages because we don’t have the funding, I have put in for another grant called Heritage Near Me, which is an off-shoot of the old heritage listing. There are about 30,000 heritage listed buildings in NSW at the moment. We were told to increase bookings and make better use of the building and we have. We are advertising a weekend where two artists are coming form Melbourne and a pop-up market in July.

Nina said, “My dad was an architect and I don’t like cooking. I have always watched all the reno shows. To me the building is in a disgraceful state, it has been left neglected for many years after it closed in 1988.”

The Arts Council are having their 25th Art Exhibition in October and Nina said she hopes some of the internal work can be completed by then.

“I’m like a dog with a bone, I’m not going to let go, it is one of the first things you see when you come into town. We have to bring it back to life. Give me this sort of thing over cooking any day.

The Times will keep our readers updated on how the work is going as it proceeds.