Geurie gets an art gallery!

After the previous business relocated to Wellington, we knew the large retail space operated (the premises of the old general store / antiques Store) needed a lot of work. 

Art-gallery ceiling lights were installed with the gallery & cafe area entirely re-wired.

The electricity meter box was upgraded, electrical circuitry redesigned which enabled new ceiling / pendant lights to be installed and a new air-conditioner unit to be installed.

L’Art Zoom gallery lights enable the art gallery to showcase art with specific lights from narrow to wide beam angles (for large landscape paintings as well as smaller pieces).

Local painter Damien Sallustio Painter removed years (decades?) of old paint and treated the surface to stop ‘old wall colour’ staining the new white-on-white gallery walls.

Jacinta Haycock, had the vision: glorious white cabinetry and white paint on the old brick petition wall. New coats of commercial floor paint went on the concrete floor.

We installed a new kitchenette/laundry tub in the back of the art-gallery to enable Jacinta to offer art-classes and enhance her working environment.

Interior room under renovation with painters working on a brick wall at the back. The floor is partially covered with tarps, and there are painting supplies, tools, and buckets scattered across the area.
A white wall with a mounted air conditioner and a metal ladder standing against the wall in a room under construction or renovation.
Room under renovation with construction tools, ladders, and lighting equipment scattered around, partially covered with tarp on the floor.
An empty room with white walls, a mint green floor, and a drop ceiling with a round wicker light fixture hanging. There is a white brick half-wall with glass display case on one side and a small section with a high chair on top in the back of the room.
A man is standing on a ladder painting a wall, with a young girl watching nearby. The room has painting supplies on the floor and a partially painted brick wall.
Art gallery wall with colorful paintings of flowers and animals, wooden table with yellow lampshades, framed artwork, woven decorations, and colorful tassels.
A small restroom with beige flooring, white marble-patterned walls, a white toilet with a black seat, side rails, a small window, an exhaust fan, and a power outlet.

The wheelchair loo…

Introducing the:

  • exempt development,

  • heritage building compliant,

  • wheelchair friendly

    loo!

Adding a humble loo to a retail & cafe space sounds like a small job.

The reality, however, is incredibly different.

The things we have learned about installing a loo (in a heritage building) would make a sane person, slightly twitchy.

The new loo enjoys:

  • hot water,

  • is wheelchair accessible,

  • a baby-change table

  • does all the things needed to enable the Café to be compliant with local food handling rules.

Shade sails

Once the loo was completed, we moved onto shade options… we know living in a rural space, you really want a shady, green and cool place to enjoy. The last drought reminded us we need moments and places to connect with others - to break up the hard times. Somewhere to meet with others, when your backyard grass is dead and somewhere for the kids or grandkids to enjoy whilst you catch up with friends or family. 

We erected 6 long steel poles and large shade sails.

The long-term plan is to have glorious grapevines climb up and over, so in the hot summers, we can re-charge in a green oasis.

Outdoor seating area with tables and chairs, beige shade sail overhead, white brick wall with 'Coffee Food' painted on it, and a black wrought iron gate in front.

A modern cafe, function & event space

In May 2023, we decided to purchase a ‘pre-loved’ commercial cafe & kitchen fit out. 

Initially our plan was to just replace shelving and counter-tops.

When we called Dubbo Regional Council (DRC) to ask what food safety items we needed to take into consideration as part of the cafe renovation/fit-out, they advised us that the trade-waste systems / disclosures for the building needed updating.

It became clear we needed to do a full-overhaul of the cafe space.

Empty stainless steel food cart parked on a city street with shopping districts in the background under a blue sky with clouds.
Person using a power drill to remove damaged wall panels from a brick wall, with debris on the floor.

The people behind the renovation!

Person trimming or clearing outdoor garden with fallen branches near brick house wall, under a shade sail on a sunny day

The renovation process has largely taken place in two stages.

Gratitude and thanks to the following tradespeople for “making it happen!” - 

Stage one:

  • Bradd Hyland - builder

  • Paul Whillock & team - builder / landscaping / equipment hire (bob-cat)

  • Ben Conroy - plumber & roofing

  • Jacob Perry - plumber

  • Ben & Noah Woldhuis Diverse Electrical & Solar (Electricians) - electricians

  • Marty Nelson & team - air-conditioning install and maintenance

  • Damien Sallustio - painter

  • DCL Locksmiths & Security - keys/locks

  • Craig & Cate Whitely, Eliza Whiteley, Jack Courts & Brendan Booth - all undertaking serious hard work, general labouring, design and vision (and hard yakka)

  • Shout out to Coralie of the Magnolia Nursery in Dubbo for supplying many plants (and ordering in special items) for the garden courtyard.

Stage two (Jan to June 2024):

Our usual builder Bradd Hyland was booked up in Jan/Feb 2024, - we didn’t have much notice due to cafe suddenly closing, so it was a scramble for trades. So a new builder & tiler, James Wood, was engaged (as luck had it, had just bought a local Geurie farm in late 2023).

A great group worked together for stage two, including:

  • Rob Bracks - landscaping & equipment hire (bob-cat & shovel)

  • Jake Elliot - concreter

  • Andy, Dave, Luis & Rita - hard-working backpacker labour in between potato picking & summer farm work

  • Damien Sallustio - commercial expoxy flooring

  • Ben & Noah Wolshius of Diverse Electrical & Solar (Electricians)

  • Regional Power Connections (installing 3 phase upgrade - replace the old meter to a new current smart meter, and installing a new switchboard

  • Jacob Perry - plumber, gas and trade waste

  • Premise Australia -surveying and town planning

  • Dave Jones & team of Western Power - building audit for fire safety. Instalation of photoluminescent exit signs, 10 year lithium battery interconnected wireless smoke detectors, new fire safety signage, the emergency response plan and various fire equipment

  • Dubbo Landscaping - supplying granite and initial guidance on courtyard options

  • Justin Whitney of Central West Pressure Cleaning - intense cleaning of front concrete paths and awning areas

  • Rodney Woldhuis of Bobcats R US - delivery of fresh topsoil, landscaping and bob-cat hire

  • Rhonda Osborn and Jen Price - landscaping advice and hard garden yakka

  • Bull and Libby Wilson, Brendan and Claire Booth,- “the glue”, co-ordination general labouring, design, vision, and hard yakka

  • Last - but by no means least! - Coco and Chris Newberry have undertaken a wide range of prep, planning, deliveries and long hours on weekends. We very much owe them sincere thanks for their hard-work and dedication. We love the brick pathway & outdoor kitchen in the playground was their idea (and Chris built the kids table).

Backyard scene with gravel ground, plants, and a metal and brick wall, sunny weather with blue sky, shaded area with beige sail shades, and a garden shed or small building.
Two people working on renovation or construction in a room with unfinished walls, covered furniture, a ladder, and construction materials.
A construction worker operating a small turquoise excavator on a backyard surface with fresh soil and gravel, surrounded by a wooden fence, brick house, and yellow shade sails.
A man standing on a step ladder painting or staining the trim around a window on a house exterior.
A person working on a backyard garden project with a wooden frame; a partially built raised bed with a young tree, brick and block wall, and trees in the background.
Interior space under renovation with construction tools, boxes, and a partially unfinished wall.

We enjoyed sourcing trades from the local region. Where possible we sourced materials from locally owned small businesses (and Bunnings).

Photo credits:

A man wearing a yellow shirt, gray shorts, and a hat is mixing cement in a wheelbarrow with a shovel. He is outdoors in a garden or yard, surrounded by plants and bags of cement on the ground.
Group of five friends sitting on a patterned bench outside a house, celebrating with drinks. They are smiling, laughing, and posing happily, with one raising their hand and another holding a child. The background shows an open door and a brightly lit interior.

Finishing touches

Renovating a beautiful old building like 55 Buckenbah Street has meant creating modern, beautiful and functional places to host local, small businesses.

But it has also been about rejuvenating a part of Geurie’s main street.

We really want people to stop in Geurie and enjoy being a customer of any of the small businesses on the main street.

With highway frontage, and ample car-parking, there is no shortage of options for locals, visitors or those travelling through with their caravan or bike, to stop and explore.

Signage:

The existing DA (which the former owners obtained), held an existing council approval for signage. We were fortunate to rely upon this DA and work alongside Dubbo Regional Council (DRC) to figure out what the existing DA permitted.

DRC approved the building signs in late September 2024 and a few weeks later, Lachlan Naef of Solid Signs was on site with paint brush, applying traditional signage that compliments the building and the era of the village.

Wheelchair ramps & handrails:

We were delighted to have an on-site visit from Rushan Hill, Community Development Officer of DRC, in relation to wheelchair access to the gallery and the café.

Following her visit, we installed a accessible ramp into the art-gallery and poured a new accessible concrete ramp into the side of the Café.

The toilet in the courtyard was purpose-built to be wheelchair accessible.

We highly recommend any business or organisation in DRC region contact Rushan, as she was a wealth of knowledge.

Professionally trained as a physiotherapist, Rushan has a common-sense approach and is determined to make access available for everyone, regardless of ability or eyesight levels.

People sitting outside a gallery and cafe, engaging in conversation and enjoying coffee, with artwork displayed inside.

May 2025 to July 2025

From 1 May 2025 we commenced work on the final room in the building to be restored.

This space was an experiment - we wanted to open up the ceilings to expose the stunning trusses - we could see the building could happily have a raked ceiling.

When the trades took down the (very low) internal ceiling, we discovered long-ago covered up sky-lights and amazing original brickwork.

We think the wooden paneling on the walls / ceilings covered up the original general store fit-out in the 1960’s. There were officially 6 different heights in this building, so removing a false ceiling and creating a modern feel, whilst retaining the original features, shows us what the building would look like if we removed the false chip-board ceiling above the art-gallery space.

The new room is currently used by Jacinta Haycock for art classes.

The new room connects to both the art gallery & cafe - via a barndoor with frosted glass panels, so over time either the gallery or cafe business can have the space added to their tenancy, depending on the needs of each tenant. 

July 2025

Time to start the process of looking for a new cafe tenant.

We decided to engage a professional story-teller, to share our hopes & the significant opportunities that awaited the right person prepared to invest their energy, time and hard work.

Sincere thanks to Tara Searl of Dubbo Real Estate Agency who spent time with us as we prepared an Expression of Interest paperwork bundle.

We thoroughly enjoyed working with Danika Armytage from Big Stories, Little Films. Danika filmed Jacinta, Libby and Claire in the cafe & courtyard - and we each shared the vision for the space.

We knew video was the way to properly communicate the beauty of Geurie, and the opportunity that exists to build a successful cafe business on the main street.

At the same time Danika captured our words and vision, we also engaged Amy & Ash from The Edit Videography. Credit to Paul Cavalier of Print Storm for connecting us with Amy and Ash of The Edit.

We didn’t end up using the video footage from either Danika or Amy&Ash to advertise. Before we could formally advertise, we were contacted by Tina, and we sent to her the Expression of Interest paperwork bundle we had prepared.

The process of working with Tara, Danika, Amy & Ash enabled us to capture the opportunity and potential of the space as well as enabling us to write a cafe business plan. We had accountants, bankers, experienced hospitality business owners review our cafe business plan, the numbers to ensure we were not over-promising the numbers. This process showed us that if a tenant wanted to open the cafe for at least five days a week and open to early morning coffee trade, the business plan was very viable. Creating a space where one person could serve and make coffee was essential for their early stages of the new cafe, so we focused the new fit-out around this feature.

Keeping the liquor licence plodding along

We were conscious between 1 May 2025 and when the new tenant began, that we needed to comply with the requirements of the On-Premises Liquor Licence. So, whilst we worked on the lease paperwork and new cafe design/ approvals, Buckenbah Collective hosted a “first home buyer workshop in the cafe space on 27 August 2025. The main driver behind this workshop was to provide a small gift back to our community around the topic of housing affordability. We were shocked to learn that the average price of a 3bed/2bath house in Geurie was only $50,000 less than nearby Dubbo. We knew Geurie would transform over time, but we didn’t expect it to happen within 3 years of buying the building. We had 45 people join us in the cafe space and courtyard as local professionals discussed approaching the bank, broker, the role of a registered valuer, how the bank of mum and dad works as well as the range of opportunities and support in place to assist first home buyers.

Cafe reno 2025 #take2

A stove on a flatbed truck parked in front of a building labeled 'Gallery and Cafe' with a small sign for 'The Lemon Tree'.

Tina & Andie approached us in mid July 2025, by late August we had the new cafe fit-out plan in place and had the all clear from the local council to commence works.

We appreciated the DRC heritage adviser coming out from Sydney to got through our plans and we took on board all of their feedback. Dubbo Regional Council have been excellent to work with - and we appreciate their support, skills and advice along the way.

Tina & Andie requested an ‘outdoor server window’ - so takeaway coffee /food could happen from the courtyard, as well as via the internal cafe space.

The external side door was converted into a ‘dutch-door’ and using the existing water connections - we pivoted the cafe layout.

Our electricians are very very patient people.

We relocated 3 phase power connections, as we sought professional advice from long-standing cafe owners about the optimal layout for the commercial kitchen. A brand-new commercial gas oven/cook-top & deep-fryer were brought in. We were able to source a pre-loved under counter fridge unit and built a coffee bar space with new fridges/freezers. New extraction fans went in and the experienced chefs created a space which works well.

By re-organising the coffee bar layout, we were able to add another 3 tables in the cafe section.

The cafe - coffee bar now seamlessly links to the commercial kitchen to the cafe.

Designing the space to be operated with one barista for early morning trade will enable the cafe business to increase/decrease labour depending on time of day as the cafe business matures.

It was pretty frantic, but Tina & Andie moved in the cafe/kitchen space on 26 September 2025.

We acknowledge the hard work and patience of Angela, Craig, Brendo, Libby, Rhonda, Roger, Ian, Peter, Ben, Noah, Claudia, Amber and the DREA team, as well as Tina, Andie & Ben and Tina’s mum Marge.

Various couriers and suppliers often worked overtime to enable the new fit-out to happen within four weeks of the lease terms being agreed.

An unfinished room undergoing renovation or filming, with a floor cleaning machine, a mop, two lights on tripods, a red bucket, and visible exposed brick and beams.
Interior view of a commercial kitchen with a counter, a small fridge underneath, and a door in the background. An informational sign explains upcoming modifications to the kitchen, including widening the doorjamb and installing heat lamps on the ceiling for evening service.
Sign for Gallery and Cafe with additional signs for art classes and commissions, The Lemon Tree Cafe, and Coffee Food Drink.
Woman with blonde hair in bun standing in kitchen, viewed through a window from a dark room.