An Australian researcher from ICOMOS Australia, Samantha Fabry, is trying to find out more about a 1920s bungalow used to train Maltese migrants in building techniques before they left for Australia.
The International Council on Monuments and Sites, an NGO dedicated to conservation around the world, is also hoping to draw up a conservation plan for the bungalow, which is situated within the Government Experimental Farm in Ghammieri.
Early last century, when Maltese were emigrating to various countries, Australia looked towards Malta for skilled labour in agriculture and construction.
One scheme to help potential migrants was the transportation to Malta of an Australian prefabricated wooden bungalow, thought to have occurred during the 1920s.
It was envisaged that this bungalow would greatly assist in the training of potential migrants in the techniques and methods used in building and construction.
The bungalow was assembled at the private Bugeja Technical Institute (Istituto Tecnico Bugeja) in Hamrun.
Opened in 1928, the Migrants Training Centre, located within the institute, was established to train migrants in skills such as colloquial English, rough carpentry, basic bricklaying, reinforced concrete, construction of buildings, scaffolding, bush and garden fencing, and general knowledge.
By June, 1929, 137 trainees had passed through the training centre, 39 of whom went to Australia.
By 1930, however, the centre - and the bungalow - were transferred to the experimental farm in Ghammieri.
Only one bungalow was erected over the years, and it was used as a showroom for Australian photographs, implements and literature. The trainees had full use of it.
Around the Australian House, as it was known, a small garden was laid out; this was necessary on account of the way in which it was built, on piles driven in the ground, and also in order to give a more complete idea of the Australian atmosphere.
Over 70 years have passed since the bungalow arrived in Malta. Although the structure is in a more fragile state and has undergone numerous alterations, the building still survives at the farm. At present, it is used as a main lecture room by the Agricultural Services and Rural Development Division Department.
Ms Fabry said that the bungalow was important both as an example of a building used within a 20th century migrant training centre, as well as an example of a late 19th to early 20th century prefabricated wooden building.
The building's condition was highlighted by the Australian High Commission during the mid 1980s. However, it was not until early 2002 that the vice-president of ICOMOS Australia. Sheridan Burke, made contact with the president of ICOMOS Malta, Ray Bondin, with a view to investigating the origins of the bungalow and the possibility of preserving it.
Although considerable information has been obtained, precisely how or why the bungalow was initially sent to Malta from Australia still remains a mystery.
One suggestion has been that the building arrived from Queensland as an incentive to attract additional migrants to work within the cane fields of Mackay during the 1920s.
Ms Fabry's email address is: Samf_work@hotmail.com