By Andrew Humphries
When a two-bedroom property at Sulphur Creek in Tasmania went on the market recently, keen buyers would have noticed an interesting feature in its kitchen.
In a nod to its history as the former Sulphur Creek UC, owner Suzanne Koblenz had created a mosaic featuring the Uniting Church logo on a wall in the kitchen.
Suzanne bought the property in 2007 and said the kitchen idea occurred to her as an obvious way to pay tribute to its rich history as a former church.
And she didn’t stop there either, putting her artistic talents to good use again to create a similar mosaic incorporating the house number at the front of the property.
The building can trace its history back to 1890, when it began life as the Primitive Methodist Church in January that year.
“It was established here because apparently there were quite a few law-abiding and God-fearing people at the time who didn’t want a proposed racetrack to be established on the site,” Suzanne says.
“I’m not sure whether they built the church here or acquired one and plonked it here, but it certainly meant it halted any chance of the site being used as a racetrack.”
The property was sold on March 1 and Suzanne will now split her time between Hobart, Melbourne and Perth.
While sad to say goodbye, she is proud of the work she and her partner put into making it such a warm and comfortable home.
“We lavished a lot of love and attention on the property and it was our way of honouring its history as a church,” Suzanne says.
“It holds an important place in the community of Sulphur Creek and I have had people come up to me and say, ‘oh we were married here’ or ‘we made our communion here’.
“It was certainly an important community hub.”
Harcourts Penguin consultant Jodi Tunn oversaw the sale and had her own special connection with the property.
“I went to Sunday School here when it was a church, so there is some real history here for me as well,” she said.
As for the unusual kitchen mosaic, Jodi said it attracted plenty of comment from potential buyers.
