Just ask Cambewarra couple Kate and Nick Dale, who with their daughters Samantha 15, Georgia 12 and Bella 10 purchased the beautiful historic home, Llanthony, in the heart of the village in late 2012.

The superb two-storey home was designed and built by Kenneth McKenzie, who also designed and built Meroogal in Nowra.

McKenzie built Llanthony for Samuel Matthews in 1864, who lived there until his death in 1894.

The Dale’s love of the property is clear and they have proudly taken custodianship of the superb home.

“We are originally from Sydney, owning something like this was just a dream - you could never afford something like this in Sydney,” Nick said.

“We both love period homes and saw Llanthony and fell in love - it’s just stunning.”

But owning a heritage listed home is constant work.

“We were lucky the home was re-plumbed, re-roofed and had new power installed in the 1970s-80s,” Nick said.

“But there are always things to be done and a constant upkeep.”

Enter Shoalhaven City Council and it’s heritage assistance program.

The program offers grants for owners of heritage listed items listed in the Shoalhaven Local Environmental Plan (LEP) 2014, or other items of heritage significance, whose activities and initiatives aim to improve the quality of the city's heritage and built environment.  

Council continues its commitment to local heritage by supporting grants offered by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) which assist council to employ a Heritage Advisor and to run an annual Local Heritage Assistance Fund to provide grants of up to $5000 for a wide range of small heritage projects including general maintenance, adaptive reuse, or sympathetic alterations/additions for heritage items.

The small grants encourage owners to undertake new minor conservation work and maintenance which, without the financial assistance of the grant, may not be able to occur.

Those grants are currently open and close on Friday, July 20.

Nick said the grants had proved a godsend in their ongoing work at Llanthony.

“We had no idea such grants existed or were available,” Nick said.

“It was almost too good to be true - through the grant process council has partnered with us to allow us to do work on the property.”

In fact the couple have been lucky enough to be recipients of three heritage grants over the years.

The first was used to restore the floorboards in the old home.

“We took up the carpet and there were these stunning floorboards,” Nick said “they hadn't been touched in 150 years.

“Council's heritage officer inspected the boards and agreed to go halves in the restoration.

“As the officer was leaving he noticed a besser brick wall which had been added onto the property to combine two structures - we were told if we wanted to get rid of that they could help as well.

“We jumped at the chance - we hated it and again council went half in its removal and restoration of the area. It was just brilliant.”

Painting any home, let alone a heritage listed property, is a big ask and can be “big dollars”.

“The house needed repainting,” Nick said “It was a massive job and we were dreading it. We were putting it off.

“We knew it was going to cost a significant amount.

“We found a painter who was prepared to take on the project and then again applied through the grant system. We were successful with council providing $4000 towards the total cost of $13,000 to paint the home.

“That work has been done and it looks just superb.”

Mr Dale said he would highly recommend anyone with a heritage listed home or other heritage items to take part in the grants program.

“It has been fantastic,” he said “Shoalhaven City Council have been superb and great to work with.”

Council also provides a free heritage advisory service.  If you would like to make an appointment with council’s heritage advisor contact 4429 3111.

More information on council’s heritage grants is available at https://www.shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au/Planning-amp-Building/Strategic-planning/Heritage-Information/Heritage-incentives