A Country Builder: E.A. Schuller (1868–1924)

Abstract

Engelbert Schuller was a French-born building contractor in the Riverina district of Australia in the late 19th and early 20th century. He constructed buildings which would become regarded as part of his adopted country’s patrimony, including the first 20th-century-style building to attract the support of the New South Wales National Trust. The heritage-listed Nowra Showground pavilion and Nangunia at Berrigan are still standing, but perhaps his best-known project was Valetta in Albury which was demolished in 1970 after a concerted campaign to save it. His widow and children kept alive the memories of his life and career and passed them on to later generations. With the aid of digitised newspapers in the 21st century the scraps of family legend could be pieced back together to create a biography of this country builder.