Clare and Brendan Dean are restoring Oatlands manse in Tasmania, once home to Presbyterian and Uniting Church ministers.
By Andrew Humphries
Tasmanian businesswoman Clare Dean loves restoring old things.
That’s probably just as well, because in restoring the manse in the central Tasmanian town of Oatlands she has quite a challenging job on her hands.
But it’s a job she is proud to tackle, as she pays homage to her ancestor, George Wilson, who built the manse in 1860.
At different times over the past 165 years, the manse has provided a stately home for ministers serving the district’s churchgoers.
Until 2022, it had been home to Uniting Church minister Rev Dennis Cousens and his wife Sally, before a decision was made by the Church to sell the property as dwindling congregation numbers meant a resident minister wasn’t financially sustainable in the Oatlands area.
Late last year Clare and her husband Brendan purchased the Uniting Church-owned manse, after Clare stumbled upon a real estate advertisement for its sale while on the internet one day.
She says it seems like fate stepped in to make sure she saw the ad that day.
After all, life is busy enough for Clare and Brendan as they juggle a number of business interests, meaning Clare had no particular desire to add another project to her full plate.
After seeing the ad, though, something drew her towards the manse’s important role in her family’s long history in Tasmania and, in the end, she couldn’t resist its pull.
“Sometimes you just can’t explain things and I do feel like the manse was meant to come back to us in a way,” Clare says.
“I feel like we’re the perfect people to do it justice and not take it in a direction that it doesn’t deserve to be taken.
“We’re almost winding back the clock and making it shine, and continuing the conversation around its uniqueness to the area, and the trials and tribulations of the people who lived there and the service to the community they provided.
“I have to say though, hand on heart, I was not looking for another building project when I saw the ad.
“We’ve just come off the back of renovating a stone building on our own place, so we absolutely were not looking for something else like that.
“But I do have a bit of a fondness for old buildings.
“Once I saw the ad I started to look through the pictures, and I was gone by about page three, and my gut feeling was telling me we needed to have a go at this.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to work on an ancestral home that is significantly important in the community, but also in our family.”
Oatlands manse pictured around 1870. Image: Tasmania State Library and Archive Service
Clare admits the decision to purchase the manse meant almost throwing out the savvy business skills that have stood her and Brendan in such good stead for many years.
“Most of the time when Brendan and I are considering something, we are always thinking about the question, ‘is this a good business decision?’.
“This is the first thing I’ve ever purchased with a zero business plan.
“Instead, I said we’ll just make it work, and so that’s where we are at the moment, just making it work.”
Given the manse’s long family history, Clare says the restoration project has become a real labour of love.
“Oh, you can’t even put a number on its importance, and I think that’s why it’s so dear to us,” she says.
“Some days I will turn up to begin work there and the temperature will be minus one or minus three degrees, but I’ve still got a smile on my face because I’m working on something so special.
“It’s an absolute pleasure to be able to do that work.
“But even more than that, I’ve been thinking a lot about my ancestors who would’ve worked here and lived here, and raised a family here, and all of that becomes incredibly sentimental to me and it’s just a really enjoyable process, paying respect to all of those things.
“My cousin is a plasterer and has also been working on the building and I said to him one day, ‘I wonder what our descendants would say if they knew that you and I were up here toiling away all this time later?’.
“I actually think they’d be fairly touched that we are still paying homage to this building all these years down the track.”
Clare admits some challenging problems have arisen during restoration work, as she aims to remain faithful to the manse as it was originally built.
“The beautiful thing that attracted us to this building was the fact that it was so untouched and that anything that had been done to it (since it was built) could easily be remedied,” she says.
“There has been a definite sense of returning it to its original state, so, as an example, I’ve spent hours and hours stripping back the timber, and it’s very much about dialling it back and just letting the building really shine for what it is.”
Extensive work was also required on the manse’s chimney stacks, which were showing the impact of many years of extreme weather.
“We had to recreate all of the chimney stacks because they had become incredibly damaged after 165 years of heat and cold,” Clare says.
“That took about a month and a half, but it’s all finished now and they will last another 165 years.”
The manse at Oatlands has been an important part of the district for 165 years. Image: Circa Heritage and Lifestyle
As restoration work continues, Clare hopes the manse can continue to be an important part of the Oatlands community.
“The idea is to eventually be able to have it as visitor accommodation so people can come in and explore it, and enjoy such a beautiful building and unique place to stay,” she says.
“But I think it’s also going to be a wonderful place for us to get together in as a family.”
While different challenges have popped up as renovation work progresses, Clare won’t put a time frame on when it all might be finished.
After all, some things should never be rushed.
“It will be done when it’s done and we’re making sure we do it properly,” she says.
