An Ulladulla woman made one last visit to the grounds of a well-known local property her parents had constructed in the early 1950s.
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Jan Gorringe (nee Veitch), daughter Sally Gorringe and grandson Joel Verschuure visited the red-brick home, which will be demolished to make way for a new integrated family health facility on the Princes Highway.
Vero and Lillian - better known as Marnie - Veitch decided to build the iconic orange/red brick, which sits halfway up the hill going south, home about 1953 to 1954, Jan said.
Her parents owned a garage where KFC now sits on the corner of North St and the Princes Highway, a sawmill where the police station is and ran a general store where Inspirations paint shop is.
"They bought this land and they decided that they build here, although Dad was reluctant to come over from there because he was close to work. He thought that was a long way, away in those days," Jan said.
Marnie designed the house as she "had a flair for that sort of thing" and local identity Sylvester 'Hopper' Robinson, who lived next door, built the family home.
"What was most impressive is the style that it is, it is very art deco inside," Jan said.
The home features half-standard bricks, bubbled-glass windows, stucco-like painting creating a three dimensional look on the walls and curved brick walls throughout.
Jan pointed to buildings on adjacent corners which sprung up as the town grew.
"This was considered to be out of town at that time. None of those buildings were there and Woolworths wasn't there. It was fairly well out of town, but of course the town grew and it became part of it."
Jan was at boarding school in Sydney when her parents moved, but her sister Ruth and brother Ron lived at the home.
She remembered wonderful family Christmas celebrations as the four-bedroom home had enough room to support her siblings and their growing families.
While Sally, who grew up in Sydney, had fond recollections of picking strawberries from her grandmother's garden.
"[I remember] looking out over the water and always rummaging in the garden to see what little treats she had. The house is always significant," Sally said.
The government acquired the land in the late 1970s, Jan believed. Her mother decided to move to Sydney to be closer to some of her children who had moved away, but the new start was short-lived as Marnie returned to Burrill Lake.
In November 2017, the NSW Government announced that a HealthOne facility will be built in Ulladulla. Construction is expected to begin in 2019 with completion by 2020.
