Pedalling to discover their own backyard

What they hadn’t discovered was their own country.

So last year, the couple cycled across Australia.

“It was about trying to better understand our own country rather than look overseas for inspiration,” Blackheath-born Mr Kelly said. “We took 10 months and stopped in 19 towns for a week. We would chat to locals, document the architecture and then present it back to the community in the form of a public exhibition.”

In Marree in South Australia, for example, they created a walking tour so visitors could look at some of the creative ways locals had used the old Ghan railway infrastructure when the rail line was closed down.

In Theodore in Queensland they made a poster of the town’s history. And at Wooleen Station in outback Western Australia, they made a booklet about 100 years of architecture, a large proportion of which has been designed to cope with the intense heat.

Now back in Blackheath, they have collated the material into one exhibition which will be on show at the New Ivanhoe Hotel on Saturday, October 6 fron 10am-4pm.

They plan to set up in the beer garden – depending on the weather – “to showcase the amazing architecture of regional Australia”, said Mr Kelly.

“And after this we will be having an Australian architectural trivia night [from 6pm] in the bistro that evening as a final hoorah and so we can all learn more about obscure architectural tidbits of our country. For example, do you know where the first mosque in Australia is?”*

For Mr Kelly, a former Blackheath Public School captain, the trip completed his final year of a Masters of Architecture. His partner, Bobbie Bayley from the Hunter Valley, is still studying but the pair intend to set up in business together.

One of the first projects is likely to be to design a house for his parents. Mr Kelly said he will be looking at local examples of buildings to determine the best methods to maintain the heat in winter and keep it cool during summer.

*Marree, built by Afghan cameleers in about 1882.