Meet the Broken Hill couple who collect old power stations
You would never say that decommissioned power stations make the best investments. But Selina LaRovere-Nagas and her family believe they have a grandeur and beauty that can’t be found in other buildings.
And they should know, they now own two of them in the outback town of Broken Hill.
Mrs LaRovere-Nagas first saw the inside of their latest one, Broken Hill’s Central Power Station, in the early 1990s.
Selina LaRovere-Nagas and Fisk Nagas outside their new power station. Photo: Supplied
Then, it was her father who was considering purchasing the place, after it was decommissioned the previous decade.
Now, more than two decades later and after five years of limbo following the producers of Mad Max: Fury Road pulling out of the deal to film there, it belongs to her and husband Fisk Nagas.
The old Broken Hill power station that was turned into a film studio. Photo: Supplied
The pair bought the 2.5-hectare site for $680,000 – a bargain considering that Broken Hill Council pumped $2 million into the site to transform some of it into a film studio, initially to accommodate the filming of Fury Road. Now it is widely regarded as a white elephant, the studio having barely been used.
The family’s history with the building was a big reason they decided to buy it, as well as the infrastructure in place, said Mrs LaRovere-Nagas, who, with Mr Nagas, also owns local hardware business Globe Hardware and co-owns the Broken Hill watering hole The Palace Hotel (of Priscilla Queen of the Desert fame).
“We have a family history with the site. My father was going to buy it in the ’90s when it stopped working as a power station, we all went and inspected the station,” she said.
“We saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The structures there are just amazing spaces that you couldn’t replicate today – it would cost millions.”
Inside the original section of the power station the couple has just bought. Photo: Supplied
The pair also own Broken Hill’s other decommissioned station, out of which their hardware business currently operates, even retaining one of the original gantry cranes that is in use every day.
“My father did purchase that power station in the 1990s, and did a lot of renovations. He took out all the old turbines and he did a lot of work renovating.”
The station was in operation until 1986. Photo: Supplied
The couple’s long-term plans for their new purchase are a work in progress, although Mrs LaRovere-Nagas, who admired the council’s “proactive” decision to try and inject life into the local film industry with the site, said that they would like to ensure the film studio forms part the site’s future operations.
“We feel a slight obligation to the community in terms of the site,” she said.
“You can’t hold on to a site for the sole purpose of the film industry but you certainly can incorporate it.”
Outside the couple’s first power station – now home to their Globe Hardware business. Photo: Google Maps
Short-term plans involve leasing out the premises to local businesses, in order to improve the building’s cash-flow prospects, which lately have been non-existent.
“Initially it’s pure realism. We’re getting interest for different uses, it’s nothing romantic, just getting use out the site and getting cash flow,” she said.
Listing agent Zeta Bennett, of First National Broken Hill, said that the auction for the power station got off to a slow start, with an initial bid of $50,000.
Although $680,000 is substantially more than that, Ms Bennett said it was still “cheaper than a one-bedroom unit in Sydney”.
