The term “tabula rasa,” like many sayings from ancient languages, has evolved over time. Originally describing writing tablets that have been wiped clean, the expression now commonly evokes emptiness or a fresh start. The English philosopher John Locke, largely credited with popularizing the term in his text An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, intended to describe something other than emptiness: rather, a white sheet of paper, a symbol for the starting point of human understanding upon which experience is recorded and comprehension develops. For Moloney Architects, the idyllic setting for this project, 20 minutes from Ballarat, presented a conundrum: an apparently “empty” site that belied its long history.
Over its time, this 150-plus-year-old property has twice seen
