Contractor Leser Build begins repairs and roof installation on Old Bega Hospital site

"I've done a few of these types of projects, and my passion is restoration, and it's also preservation because to preserve something that's old, to me, that's the beauty," Mr Bennett said, who is working on behalf of contractor Leser Build.

"For everything that comes out of this building, it's put in a rack or put aside in its groupings, and either used as a template to make something exactly the same or [we] reuse the material.

"If we can avoid throwing anything away, we do, if it can be reused, it will be."

On August 28, Sapphire Coast Cranes delivered a number of premade wooden trusses to become part of the new roof installation at the historic building.

The roof work was estimated to take four weeks.

"We have it down to the day, we know what we're doing," Mr Bennett said.

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The installation of the iron will take a further four weeks, while some extra time has been given for the flashing around the chimneys; a process where sheets of metal are installed around the area where the chimney meets the roof.

Since the ceiling was still intact in a section of the Old Hospital described as SO1, the roof was replaced as a first priority, which has kept the ceiling preserved, without the need for demolition, before repairs could be made.

"It's not just a material thing that's going up, from a builder's point of view you're taking a man's heart and soul in there, because everything we've worked for in the past, like an artist, goes into it," Mr Bennett said.

"These jobs particularly, you've really got to stretch yourself further than where most men would fear to tread, you've really got to thin yourself out there.

"I'll definitely be proud when I finish this, but it won't be without a hell of an effort.

"It'll come back to its former glory, you believe me," he said with a smile.

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