This simple cottage stands as the testatement to the rural workers in the 19th and the 20th Century who made their lives on the pastoral properties of limestone plains (Authority, 2017). It was initially built for head shepherd of the Duntroon estate; it has been preserved as it was over time of Curley family who made it their home from the 1913 to 1915.
The Mugga Mugga cottage is a social decorative along with a domestic record to the home of the Curly family. The Curly family relocated to the Mugga-Mugga on the cold, wet, windy day in the August 1913 . Their new house at the time was comparatively isolated compared to close knit village life of the Duntroon (Authority, 2017). Shopping was the day long excursion by the buggy to the Queanbeyan which was twelve kilometers away. The Curley family made the property their own where they ordered wallpaper as well as huge households its from the Sydney through the mail order. A vegetable garden at that time was established near the creek and fresh vegetables as well as strawberries were added to the existing quinne trees and the berry bushes. Mrs. Curley realm was flower garden which surrounded the house (Bond and Worthing, 2016). Additionally, there were Lilac trees which boarded on the garden as well as honeysuckle which draped to the verandah, while the flowers along with the bulbs offered a drift to the evening perfume. The decorative records the home for the Curly family which provides spectacular view of the surrounding around the house.
It is also significant to note that all the families which lived at Mugga-Mugga throughout the history. At the first shepherd hut it was built at Mugga-Mugga and did not survive, but the current cottage has been perched to the gentle hillside with the view to the plain below where the sheep gazed (Bond and Worthing, 2016). The cottage was located on the hill looking over the Queenbeyan and the flat land to the original limestone plains. This was the perfect location to which was shepherds home. The settlement on the site started in 1838 and centerpiece is simply ordinary cottage.
It is also observed that the cottage stills remains in the rural settings which represent the simple functional home to the Curly family. The building at the Mugga-Mugga cottage evidence a long tradition to making do with whatever was at hand. The house is located ten kilometers from CBD, and getting there it is adventure on its own. The house has been set in the rural areas, where the visitors drive over the cow grates, past roaming horses along the windy and unsealed roads to carpark. This shows a historic property in the view of the Mugga-Mugga cottage which is located on the hill looking at the Queanbeyan and the flat land to the originals of the limestone plains.
There are numerous management issues which has been highlighted in the Mugga-Mugga cottage these are as follows; one of the management issue is that the rotten timber and the paint is peeling off. The timber which has been cladding requires painting as well as replacing of the parts which have been rotten. The small cottage has been conserved and at the same time furnished with the household items which belonged to the Curley family who had moved to the Mugga-Mugga from the Duntroon in the year 1913. Mugga-Mugga cottage is traditional and it has rotted which requires some repainting in some of the parts which have even peeled.
There is rust in the gutters and the pipes, this is a management issues which need to be addressed. The matters which were involved in the construction of the cottage were old materials and they have only been present form over the last few years. The materials have had rust in the glutter especially in the pipes. It has only been present that they have been changed and repainting done on them. Nonetheless, it is also important to note that restoration is appropriate only if the evidence or the based on the conjecture. The reconstruction is appropriate only where there has been sufficient evidence to reproduce an earlier state of a fabric which has been altered. In the case the glutter and the pipes had rust, thus they needed to be replaced to make the cottage look as new.
The wallpapers at Mugga-Mugga cottage have peeled at the table room. The Mugga Mugga has been associated to many individuals integral with the Canberra growth and the grassland status is also required. The walls had been rendered and limewashed initially with the wall paper peeling off. The wall papers have been more than 100 years old which were found at the slab cottage by Maureen Tully. The decay of the wall paper and the render shows that the original rubblestone wall has a limewash finish which has been smoothed and rendered flat. At the later stage a lime render had been applied (Cooper, 2015). The surface had been given various layers of the whitewash and latter was papered with one of the layer of the newspaper which was followed by presently visible patterned wallpaper.
It could also be observed that there were a lot of holes on the wall. However, they have undergone changes and reconstruction. The dividing wall are not original but they were added in 1912 (Lilley, 2017). The causes of the holes on the wall were the trees, while the aesthetically valuable might cause damage to historic building fabric via the roots growth hence disrupting the foundations.
It has also been observed that the kitchen building foundation is not good and it need to be renovated. The kitchen slab and the connecting link are week so they need to have a strong foundation (Robertson, 2016). There is need to have a hard and soft elements which is included in the CMP (Cooper, 2015). The study recommends a strong foundation to be done and this will require careful management in order to minimize on the adverse impacts on the heritage values of the Mugga-Mugga cottage.
It has also been noted that the floor is cracked near the stove and the oven. Most part of the Mugga-Mugga cottage has a timber floor with a hessian ceilings as well as timber framed doors and the widows (Scharrer, Hammer and Leng, 2018). At the floor near the stove and the oven the floor is cracked. However, over the years there has been renovation which have been carried out on the floor and currently it is now concrete and is now used for the interpretation as well as the displays (Cooper, 2015).. In the previously internally floors were made of timbers and the walls were lined with the plasterboard (Graham, Ashworth and Tunbridge, 2016). They were made of the hardwood floors which were original except where obvious or known replacement took place. These timbers over the years began to crack and holes were developed that’s when there was need to replace with the concrete since it could last longer as compared to the timber (Cooper, 2015). Currently, there has been a small stone cottage which has replaced an earlier timber shepherds hut therefore there has been innovations which have been carried out to replace on the floors of the cottage as the previous one had holes and they were cracked (Waterton and Watson 2016).
Mugga-Mugga has not been widely known or instantly recognizable by the Canberra community. Mugga-Mugga has been a simple dwelling that has been modified and extended over time (Eric, Geoffrey and Sandy, 2012). The settlement on the site started in 1838 and its centerpiece is simply a simple cottage that was constructed for the head shepherd of the Duntroon (Hermann and Rodwell, 2015). The cottage is just a testatement to the workers who made their lives on the pastoral properties especially in the limestone Plains. The cottage has not been recognized by the Canberra community since it was originally built for the head shepherd of the Duntroon estate and it was preserved as it was in the time of the Curley family who made their home. It was a private property which was owned by this family therefore the community did not have part of it since it belonged to this family. If it was community owned they could have recognized (Castro and Lucini, 2017). It can also be noted that Slyvia Curley offered the Mugga-Mugga cottage to the ACT government in 1994 as an environmental education centre. The cottage just remains a testament to the families who worked on one of the limestone plains which was a great pastoral estate (Castro and Lucini, 2017). The Canberra community has not been recognized or associated with the cottage and that’s why not many from this community recognize it as part of their cultural elements which was used during those times.
It has also been noted that Mugga Mugga has not been widely promoted to the visitors and the tourists, as compared to the other local historical community. It was only after the 1911 when the Duntroon estate was acquired by the Commonwealth Government and it was converted into Royal Millitary College of Australia (Cassalia, 2014). The estate over the years has been renovated from the original set up, it is only recently the government made it an education centre which has been built by the voluntary labour and it has been furnished through the donations of the materials as well as equipment. It has been a learning program venue, and a place where community events and private functions have been held (Laing and Stanford, 2015). The government has not put much emphasizes on promoting the place as a tourist centre since it is more of an education centre (Gordon and Lopez, 2016). The centre provides unique opportunities for the venue hire when there are events which are upcoming (Robertson, 2016). The admission to the Mugga-Mugga includes the tour with the guides which feature images of the inaccessible areas to the cottage through use of the digital guide (Cooper, 2015).
When the visitors came to the place they felt the rural working class lifestyle and the values of the holders rather than the prominent and important families to the large pastoral (Smith, 2017). The building at the Mugga-Mugga evidence that there has been a long tradition of making do with whatever was at hand. The individuals who were living at the place were pastoralists and they kept animals in the farm like the sheep (Baehr, 2017). The lifestyle they lived was that of the rural working class. The three sisters of Curley family were working class whereby the eldest was a trained teacher who worked as a distance teacher and was married to Fredrick Coaster in 1942 (Baehr, 2017). Widowed she came back to Mugga-Mugga in 1975 to live with her sister. Another was Evelyn who worked in the accounts office Cusacks furniture and another was Slyvia who started her career in Goulburn (Graham, Ashworth and Tunbridge, 2016). Through this it is clearly observed they lived the rural working class lifestyle and they were not the prominent important family as it was thought to be, they were ordinary individuals.
One of the recommendations in regards to the Mugga Mugga cottage is that there is need to have further research done. There are many elements which are still not known about this cottage and particularly the community which lived in this place. There has been no much research on what took place at the time, particular what individuals in the community did, what was their economic, social and political aspect like. There is need to do extensive research on this aspect.
Another recommendation is that there should be consideration in relation to more planned approaches to recording the oral histories with the key subject. It is important to record the history with the use of detailed techniques in order to preserve it for the future generations who will learn the different cultures of the past particularly about the Canberra community.
References
Authority, G.B.R.M.P., 2017. Woppaburra Traditional Owner heritage assessment (Document No. 100428). Accessed At: https://elibrary.gbrmpa.gov.au/jspui/bitstream/11017/3215/7/SUPERSEDED-Impact-Assess-Woppaburra-Heritage.pdf
Baehr, P., 2017. Founders, classics, canons: Modern disputes over the origins and appraisal of sociology’s heritage. Routledge. Bond, S. and Worthing, D., 2016. Managing Built Heritage: The Role of Cultural Values and Significance. John Wiley & Sons.
Carrion Gordon, L. and Lopez, M., 2016. Preservation Model to Process’ La Bomba Del Chota’as a Living Cultural Heritage. International Journal of Information and Communication Engineering. Accessed At: https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/107452/4/1Preservation%2BModel%2Bto%2BProcess%2B%E2%80%9CLa%2BBomba%2Bdel%2BChota%E2%80%9D%2Bas%2Ba%2Bliving%2Bcultural%2Bheritage%2BLCCG%20%281%29.pdf
Cassalia, G., 2014. Assessing Heritage Significance: Decision Support Tools for Managing Landscape’s Cultural Value in Southern Italy. In Advanced Engineering Forum (Vol. 11, pp. 647-652). Trans Tech Publications.
Castro, J.V. and Lucini, M., 2017. Memories narrated by high school youth in the cultural heritage significance. REVISTA PRAXIS EDUCACIONAL, 13 No. 26, pp.299-320.
Cooper, B., 2015. Some examples of heritage stones from Australia. In Engineering Geology for Society and Territory-Volume 5 (pp. 213-218). Springer, Cham.
Eric, M., Geoffrey, B. and Sandy, B., 2012. Draft Mugga-Mugga Conservation and Management plan Volume 1. Canberra Museums and Galleries.
Graham, B., Ashworth, G. and Tunbridge, J., 2016. A geography of heritage. Routledge.
Hermann, C. and Rodwell, D., 2015. Heritage Significance Assessments to Evaluate Retrofit Impacts: From Heritage Values to Character-defining Elements in Praxis. How to Assess Built Heritage? Assumptions, Methodologies, Examples of Heritage Assessment Systems, pp.169-90.
Laing, N. and Stanford, K., 2015. Aboriginal cultural heritage: Aboriginal cultural heritage law: A long road to reform. LSJ: Law Society of NSW Journal, 14, p.88.
Lilley, I., 2017. Indigenous archaeological heritage in Australia: definition and management of sites. American Anthropologist, 119(1), pp.131-133.
Museum guide. https://www.historicplaces.com.au/mugga-mugga-cottage/about
Robertson, I.J., 2016. Introduction: heritage from below. In Heritage from below (pp. 15-42). Routledge.
Scharrer, B., Hammer, T. and Leng, M., 2018. Terraced landscapes. The significance of a living agricultural heritage for sustainable regional development.
Smith, W., 2017. Place and Punk: The heritage significance of Grunge in the Pacific North West (Doctoral dissertation, University of York).
Waterton, E. and Watson, S., 2016. Introduction: A visual heritage. In Culture, Heritage and Representation (pp. 19-34). Routledge.
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