By Victoria Stone-Meadows
Former business tycoon and Botanic Ridge resident George Frew has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) this Queen’s Birthday for his services in historic restoration.
Mr Frew has a long history of being involved in the preservation of history.
He has been recognised for his work raising money to restore the Polly Woodside sailing ship and saving the Goldsbrough Mort building in Melbourne’s CBD.
Mr Frew was the founder and builder of the Commodore Hotel and Motel Chain in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.
He did not have a maritime background and confesses to knowing very little about ships and sailing.
But that did not stop him from working hard to raise the funds to restore the Polly Woodside.
Mr Frew was approached by Dr Graeme Robertson of the National Trust of Australia to help with fund-raising.
The restoration of the Polly Woodside would cost $300,000 which is equivalent to $3.3 million in 2017 with the government contributing $200,000 to the project.
Mr Frew came up with a genius idea of how to raise the remaining $100,000 needed to restore the ship.
He was unsure he wanted to commit to being involved in such a project, but it was an interaction with a passerby when he first saw the ship that changed his mind.
“Doc Robertson from the National Trust and I went out to see the ship,” he said.
“I remember when I looked off the bridge I thought ‘what a mess’; it was devoid of sails and not sailing anywhere.”
The much run-down sailing ship had been used as coal hulk since the 1920s and was towed up and down the rivers in Melbourne delivering coal.
“First, I had to get up on board to have a good look at her which is a tricky thing to do. When I was up there I thought it was pretty solid, but still thought it was a flight of fancy trying to restore it,” he said.
“That was when a woman walked down below and called out saying we should ‘take it out to the middle of the bay and sink it’.”
“My blood rose. Fancy someone making a comment like that.”
Thanks to the throwaway comment from this woman, Mr Frew’s determination came to the fore and he dedicated himself to making sure the Polly Woodside would be refurbished.
“That was the decision-maker; I was irate and thought to myself it wouldn’t be impossible to restore.”
It was from there that Mr Frew decided his fund-raising efforts should centre on the kinds of people that really cared about restoring and preserving history.
So he decided he would raise money for the Polly Woodside directly from the members of the National Trust of Australia.
Mr Frew had made 1170 small models of the Polly Woodside and what she would look like once restored and sold them at $100 each to the members of the National Trust.
Each model ship had a personalised plaque that recognised the buyer of the ship as a contributor to the resurrection of the Polly Woodside.
“We sold so many gifts people were being shamed by other members to contribute to the Polly Woodside,” Mr Frew said.
“Once we raised the money it went straight to the National Trust and the balance of the money was raised by the State Government.”
Mr Frew has also been recognised with an OAM for his preservation of the Goldsbrough Mort building that sits at the corner of Bourke and William Streets in Melbourne.
The building had been used by various companies when Mr Frew purchased it in the late 1970s, and was in a state of disrepair.
“It was a terrible mess,” he said.
“There was refuse from storage in the rooms for what was then a telephone company and there was stuff everywhere.”
After purchasing the building, Mr Frew said he and his crews removed about 100 tonnes of rubbish from the building.
“We then had to design the interior and undertake restoration of it, which with the help from the Melbourne Council took about three years.”
Mr Frew said he had fond memories of the times he spent working on the Goldsbrough Mort building.
“It’s a magnificent building and renovating then in the city was nothing new to me and it proved to be a very worthwhile doing.”
Among other historic achievements, Mr Frew rescued the gigantic chandelier from the Regent Theatre when it was scheduled for demolition, then gifted it back to the new owner once it had been saved.
Throughout all these tasks and undertakings to preserve important parts of Melbourne’s history, Mr Frew said he hadn’t done it for the recognition.
“In one sense, I can’t help but say throughout all these things no-one has given me much recognition,” he said.
“But that’s just life – I feel grateful that somebody has said this is not right and decided to give me this honour, and that’s more than good enough for me.”
