Support us

Since the Abbotsford Convent Foundation (ACF) was formed in 2004, the generous support of our community of donors and partners has helped bring piece after piece of the Abbotsford Convent’s heritage spaces back to life for our community to enjoy.

With 11 uniquely beautiful buildings dating right back to 1868, the restoration work we do is rigorous, methodical, costly and ongoing. That’s the thing about heritage restoration work – it never stops! And there’s still so much more we need to do.

In 2018, two striking features of the Convent building were in a state of disrepair and required urgent remedial works:

The dilapidated heritage balcony sitting in a prime position overlooking the Convent’s stunning gardens, remained closed and inaccessible to the community for safety reasons.

The 110+ year-old tessellated tiles lining our public walkways were in a state of increasing disrepair; with much of the walkway crumbling, and gaffer tape providing a temporary protection until funding was secured for professional conservation and repairs.

Piece by piece, the support of our community of donors and partners has helped open up more of the Convent’s heritage spaces to the community – whilst also actively supporting the essential maintenance and ongoing TLC needed for all corners of this thriving precinct.

Supporters of our ‘Walk With Us’ appeal in mid-2018 enabled us to:

• Engage a recognised experienced heritage tile conservator, Penny Byrne, to assess, restore and replace the delicate 110+ year-old tessellated tiling on the balcony
• Repair the extensive heritage tiling throughout the ground floor of the Convent Building
• Ensure the balcony space complies with current building codes – including installing a heritage-grade mesh
• Ensure the balcony is now a safe and accessible prime-position space for arts and cultural community activations and events
• Open a piece of the Convent’s history for the very first time.

The Convent was very proud to announce a new partnership with FDC Construction & Fitout as part of this funding project, who match-funded all donations to this public fundraising campaign up to $40,000, to reach the $80,000 required for these significant restoration works.

We are most grateful to every single person who contributed to this appeal and made this important project a reality.