The iconic home featured in the Australian film The Castle has been saved from potential demolition by an 82-year-old man from Victoria.
After a seven-year battle with the council, owner George Fendyk has secured approval for the house to become a three-bedroom home, potentially saving the piece of Australian film history from getting demolished.
The house, which was used as the Kerrigan family home in the 1997 comedy, was bought by Fendyk for $40,000 in 2017. He then relocated the home 276 kilometres from Strathmore to Beechworth in Victoria.
The move cost him an estimated $140,000 to $200,000 as he worked to preserve the home, which had fallen into disrepair.
“It feels great,” Fendyk said after finally receiving council approval.
“It was designed for a serenity and I get people from Darwin, everywhere, all over the place, looking at it,” he told Today hosts Michael Willesee Jr and Sylvia Jeffreys.
Fendyk, who has lived in Beechworth for 74 years, believed bringing the famous house to the town would attract visitors and help highlight its history.
“I think [the house] is good for Beechworth. The people who come and go to Beechworth don’t stay here long; they stay a few years, and they go move on and that’s the thing that worries me,” he said.
The journey to relocate the home was not simple. Fendyk said the house arrived in four pieces and spent years sitting on his property while he worked through planning approvals and restoration challenges.
“It came here in four pieces, it sat in the paddock for years and years, and it’s lost all his plaster, lost all his internals. So it’s only basically a block-up stage,” he said.
Fendyk originally hoped to transform the property into part of a caravan park, complete with a poolroom and caretaker’s cottage.
However, those plans were abandoned after council rejected his first application in 2019 and costs continued to rise.
A second application to use the building as a family home was approved in June this year.
The council said the approval process took time because the proposed use of the building needed to be clarified and the house sat across two land titles, that was eventually resolved after a related subdivision was completed.
While Fendyk has finally received approval, he said he remains cautious after years of setbacks, including changes in council leadership that forced him to revisit parts of the process.
The 82-year-old has also called on Australians to visit Beechworth and support the preservation of the home.
“We need ’em!” he said.
Image: Today
