The Old House Restoration Boom in New South Wales and the Rise, Decline and Persistence of National History 1960s–2010s

Abstract

Using examples from New South Wales, this article demonstrates that a mania for restoring old houses emerged in the 1960s and peaked in the 1980s in Australia but continued into the twenty-first century. In the changing public rhetoric which surrounded house restoration we can see the varied impacts of increasing regulation, a new sombre view within historical culture and the shifting nature of nationalism, but also how house restoration could serve as a refuge from these complexities.