There are other photos of the mill but PS wouldn’t open them. I added the verandah and steps onto the very bare original mill + the signwriting above and landscaping.
On leaving ANU in 1977 I was asked by J.B. Young’s (Queanbeyan department store) to see what could be done with a disused flour mill, part of their property which eventuated in my taking the lease at a nominal rent. I added the verandah around the front and two sides with new toilets and made a restaurant out of the ground floor space and an office for me with a display space on the first floor. Lack of a fire escape prevented development of the 2nd floor and the floor in the roof. I called it Byrne’s Mill 1883 and organised the signwriting on the brick front.
Gus Petersilka opened a restaurant but didn’t promote it well and there have been a succession of restauranteurs subsequently. I sold it back to Youngs in the early 1980s but lost a lot of money in the process – at least I saved it from the rednecks who wanted to pull it down. It served as a home for my Design Associates for a few years and also as the home for The New Millwrights. It is now the most significant bit of historic property in the centre of Queanbeyan and deserves a more appropriate use in keeping with its age.
All the papers and drawings resulting from the restoration of the mill are now being given to the Queanbeyan Historical Museum with the suggestion that the Mill and its Millhouse become the new museum if the QCC agree. I hope they do.