Located in Burradoo in the Southern Highlands, the latest project by the Three Blue Ducks hospitality team is their most ambitious yet.

Set on 600-acre site, the project focuses on regenerative farming to create food that that is sold on site at the new farmhouse-style restaurant and bakery.

JN delivered structural engineering services on the new Three Blue Ducks restaurant, an intimate dining room with elevated food and service. The interior features dramatic wooden beams, a nod to the history of farming that had taken place for two centuries on the land. Every design decision, from the layout of the dining room to the choice of materials, was made with that history in mind.

Before the restaurant could be designed and built, engineers had to decide what to do about the dilapidated 200-year-old farmhouse that stood on the site. JN approached the project with an open mind, knowing that other engineers had recommend knocking down the decrepit building. Our team, with decades of structural engineering and heritage expertise, saw potential and knew that with some clever design and smart engineering, some parts and fabric of the original farmhouse structure could be saved and incorporated into the new space.

How JN’s heritage engineering expertise guided the project

JN provided structural engineering services with heritage expertise to the new Three Blue Ducks restaurant at Burradoo, underpinning and strengthening the existing structure to bring the venue to current standards

• Footings were added to the new extension, as the original 200-year-old farmhouse had been built directly on the ground with no footings at all
• Engineers designed the double brick building to strengthen the existing structure, including the use of cantilevered steel beams and a steel frame positioned outside the structure
• The original rafters were kept as a focal point of the dining room, preserving a link between the building and the land where the food is grown.

Keeping the old rafters as a focal point of the dining room creates a sense of history while maintaining a link to the land where the food is grown to be served to diner.

JN Engineering worked through a considered process, assessing what could be salvaged, reinforced and adapted so that the finished restaurant continues the same story the farm has been telling for two hundred years.

First image by Three Blue Ducks