This home, owned by Brisbane filmmakers Sarah-Jane Walsh and Paul Butler, is going to auction next month.
East Brisbane is about to lose two of its most creative residents with filmmakers Sarah-Jane Walsh and Paul Butler listing their renovated home at 18 Chorlton St.
Ms Walsh has been directing American film and television shows from Brisbane for close to 20 years.
She’s currently the additional assistant director on the American documentary series Joe Exotic, which is filming in Brisbane, telling the story of the controversial American zookeeper nicknamed “Tiger King” who is now in jail for his involvement in a murder-for-hire plot.
Joseph “Joe Exotic” Maldonado-Passage with one of his tigers. Photo courtesy of AFP Photo / Netflix
“Because the director can’t talk to the extras, I give all the extras their first position, a queue and an action,” Ms Walsh said. “It’s something I’ve been doing for 20 years.
Her partner, fellow filmmaker Paul Butler, has just premiered a documentary he worked on with Oscar nominated director Judith Ehrlich as part of the Brisbane International Film Festival, called The Boys Who Said No.
But filmmaking is only part of Ms Walsh’s career portfolio.
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Sarah-Jane Walsh relaxing in the family home she has just listed for sale.
She is also the interior designer behind Fortitude Valley’s new Greaser Bar, the owner of Brisbane’s largest antique centre, the Camp Hill Antique Centre and TART Cafe, and the mother of three children under 10.
With so much going on, it’s no wonder the portrait of her, entered in the Brisbane Portrait Prize by local artist Marisa Veerman last year, is a blur of motion.
Marisa Veerman entered the Brisbane Portrait Prize last year with this work using photography, embroidery and wax titled: The Teller of Tales – Sarah-Jane Walsh. Image courtesy of Maris Veerman and Lethbridge Gallery.
But 20 minutes before a crowd of strangers arrive to inspect her East Brisbane home which is going to auction next month, she sits cross-legged on her couch with The Righteous Brothers playing on an old valve radio that takes 30 seconds to warm up.
“You think it’s not working and then all of a sudden …” she said.
The home at 18 Chorlton St, East Brisbane with the valve radio on the right under the airconditioning unit.
Making things work in a different setting is something Ms Walsh is particularly good at doing.
She once came home with the diner from the Australian TV series H2O: Just Add Water that she was working on.
“The whole diner,’ she said. “We had it before we renovated and we actually did put the booth up inside the house.”
Then there was the kitchen from the hit US series Monarch Cove which starred a bevy of Brisbane actors including Andrew Buchanan and James Stewart.
“I’ve never used this place as a film location but a lot of items are props and have been used as props from shows I’ve worked on.”
The original home faces the street with the extension tucked behind on the 455 sqm block.
In renovating the now four-bedroom family home she shares with filmmaker Paul Butler and their three children, Elvis, Hemingway and Sinatra, she has gone one step further, using professional skill sets in different ways to achieve a home that is a blend of vintage charm and modern family function.
“The spiral staircase is out of a church and we got a guy who builds roll cages for cars to do the balustrading,” she said.
The feature staircase at 18 Chorlton St, East Brisbane.
“He built the big steel frames and then soldered these (circles) on individually. He probably regretted the job at that point but it is one of my favourite features.”
Glass concertina doors from the old Burleigh Pub on the Gold Coast also feature in the extension to the house which has added bedrooms, an attic, downstairs living and kitchen areas and outdoor entertaining zones around an in-ground pool.
The kitchen is part of an extension to the original house.
“I’ve incorporated the old with the new so that it flows really well and you don’t realise you’re in the old part or the new part of the house,” she said.
It starts raining as she speaks and the concertina doors are open on two sides of the downstairs family room in preparation for the twilight open home but there’s no need to close anything because surrounding covered decks protect the home.
The original two-bedroom cottage has been restored and has a central foyer accessed from the side of the house, with a flight of six stairs leading up to front office with a skylight and red and yellow stained glass windows that can be seen from street level.
The lounge to the right of the foyer has now become a dedicated library with a fireplace.
The home is filled with antiques, including this porter’s chair which is designed to keep the porter warm near the entrance to a hotel.
From the library a hallway leads past two bedrooms, which are connected by a creative folding wall, into the main living areas.
Two bedrooms can be opened into one play space thanks to a concertina wall.
The spiral staircase leads to the master suite with its own private deck, and an attic for extra storage.
The master bedroom.
“Basically I’ve had three children and each child came with its own renovation,” she said.
“Elvis our first child came with the pool and the extension to the house nine years ago. Hemingway our second child came with our office, and our third child Sinatra came with the new bathroom and new bedrooms for the children. That was four years ago.”
One of the new bathrooms at 18 Chorlton St, East Brisbane with an antique medicine cabinet for shelving.
A European-style laundry was also a feature of the most recent renovations, hidden behind a custom-built wall in the main bathroom.
The European laundry in the main bathroom.
Ms Walsh is now working on the US documentary Joe Exotic which is filming in Brisbane while she looks for a new home for her growing family, and continues her other job as the owner of the Camp Hill Antique Centre and TARTS cafe, while Paul Butler’s Vietnam War documentary, The Boys Who Said No, made its Queensland debut at the Brisbane International Film Festival on Saturday and is awaiting a cinematic release.
“Because of the shop I can’t do the directing full time any more and I have three little kids, but this is an exciting time for Brisbane,” she said.
“When Brisbane gets locked down during Covid, we can keep filming and every other place in the world it’s different. We are safer here than anywhere really.
“Queensland can leverage that, people will realise that this is the place we can come and shoot film and TV. That’s because there’s beaches, sunshine, aqua waters, and red dirt. You can do anything here.”
Chris Rice and Taj Suffolk of Place Bulimba will take 18 Chorlton St, East Brisbane to auction on November 6.
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