Heritage Restoration in Broken Hill: Two Schools, Classes Still Running

Broken Hill is full of old buildings with a lot of character, and a lot of them are schools. Stone walls, timber louvres and rendered façades that have stood for generations don't take kindly to salt-damp, ground movement and a Far West summer. When they start to fail, the job isn't just to fix them. It's to fix them without losing what makes them worth keeping, and without shutting the school.

In 2025 PV Projects delivered two of these jobs for School Infrastructure NSW in Broken Hill. Here's what was involved and what we learned.

Broken Hill North Public School: saving a heritage-listed block

The heritage-listed A Block at Broken Hill North Public School was deemed unsafe after significant structural movement. Salt had attacked the stone footings, and the walls were moving with them.

We worked alongside Heritage NSW, the Department of Education, structural engineers and heritage consultants to work out how to stabilise the building without pulling apart its historic fabric. The Stage 1 works ran over 18 weeks, from May to September 2025, and included:

  • Sequential underpinning of the salt-damaged stone footings, dug and poured in one-metre sections so the two-storey structure stayed supported the whole time
  • High-strength concrete and waterproofing to stand up to aggressive ground conditions
  • Stone wall repairs to the damaged sections
  • Reinstating hardwood flooring and rendered stucco finishes so the building looks and feels like it always has

The methodology didn't stay fixed. As the ground was opened up, new structural issues showed up, and we refined the approach with the engineers and heritage team as we went. That's normal on heritage work. What matters is having a builder who can adapt the method without cutting corners on the heritage requirements.

See the project page: Broken Hill North Public School – Heritage Stonework Restoration

Broken Hill Public School: new louvres and eaves on a steep, live site

Across town at Broken Hill Public School, the old timber louvres had deteriorated to the point that some were coming away from the building. That's a real safety risk in a school.

We replaced the ageing timber louvres on Blocks A and B with modern aluminium louvres and installed new Colorbond eaves. The site made it harder than it sounds:

  • A steep, rocky site with double-storey buildings
  • 490 lineal metres of scaffold built around active school areas
  • Protected walkways, drop nets and exclusion zones so students and staff could move safely
  • Weekend works and controlled deliveries to keep noise and traffic away from teaching time
  • Twice-weekly coordination with the school and weekly reporting to stakeholders

The works ran from March to August 2025, across two school terms, and were delivered on time and on budget. The school kept operating the whole way through.

This project won Extensions, Renovations and Refurbishments under $5m at the 2026 West Region MBA Awards.

See the project page: Broken Hill Public School Project

What heritage school work in the Far West actually takes

Both jobs came down to the same few things.

1. Keep the school running. Schools can't just close for a term. Staging, scaffold layout, exclusion zones, weekend work and regular contact with the principal are what make it possible to build around classes.

2. Work with heritage, not against it. On a heritage-listed building, every decision about materials and method has to work for Heritage NSW and the asset owner as well as the engineer. Get them involved early and keep them involved.

3. Expect the unexpected underground. Old stone footings rarely match the drawings. A builder who can adjust the method with the engineer on site saves time and avoids variations blowing out.

4. Plan remote logistics from day one. Broken Hill is a long way from Dubbo. We ran the workforce, materials and deliveries from our Dubbo base, and getting that right is half the job on any Far West project.

We've used the same approach on other heritage and remote work, including the Tooraweenah School Residence refurbishment, which had to follow heritage preservation guidelines, and the CSIRO Parkes Observatory amenities and path restoration. In Broken Hill we've also delivered the Broken Hill High School carpark upgrade, and the integration works and lift at Morgan Street Public School are in progress now.

Why choose PV Projects for school and heritage work

PV Projects is a Dubbo-based builder working across the Central West and Far West of NSW, from Broken Hill and Packsaddle to Goodooga, Parkes and Grenfell. We're NSW Government prequalified under SCM0256 and SCM1461, hold NSW contractor licence 384586C, and are a 50% Aboriginal-owned, Supply Nation registered business with ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 certification. We've delivered work for the Department of Education, Public Works, NSW Police and CSIRO, and our team is used to the paperwork, protocols and standards that come with public sector jobs.

Have you got an ageing school building, a heritage-listed asset or a façade that's starting to fail anywhere in Far West or Central West NSW? We'd be happy to talk it through.

Call PV Projects on (02) 6884 3240 (Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5pm), email admin@pvprojects.com.au, or send us an enquiry. We're at 11 Asset Way, Dubbo.