Wunderlite Reproduction Panels
Vehicle in Bathurst Regional

Wunderlite has been producing some of the most normal pressed metal panels since 1980, and have been contracted frequently to manage and mend many heritage buildings nationally. Wunderlite specialisms in the art deck period, and you can find a number of our panels featuring in fresh shops, as well as the Art Dec period buildings. Art Dec is now making a comeback, with fresh architecture taking on the stylized designs found in the Art Dec period.

T he Wunderlich company, founded by Ernest Wunderlich in 1885, created a significant impact on the nature and style of private and public buildings in Australia. The initial triumph of installations in such buildings as the Colonial Secretary's Building in Macquarie Street and the Beadle's and Paling's piano showrooms in George Street, Sydney, encouraged Wunderlich to patent this fresh form of ceiling and look for further contracts. Ernest Wunderlich, now joined by his brother Alfred in the business, was intensely musical and this made them mindful of the acoustic advantages of their metal ceilings. They convinced the Sydney City Council to use their product for the projected Centennial Hall. It was never designed as a concert hall, and the great organ must have been an afterthought, because the architects had specified an ornate plaster ceiling with console and pendentives, that certainly would have fallen on the audiences as soon as the 64ft lower C pipe sounded. After a lengthy canvass of mayor and aldermen, I induced the City Council to substitute stamped zinc for the ceiling and all its decorations. Wunderlich panels were produced until the 1950s when the effect of the two World Wars and changing tastes finally secured the demise of this very particular decorative product. Subsequent World War II and the advent of modern materials and designs, Wunderlich and the other manufacturers expanded into diverse areas of the building and plumbing trades and pressed metal panels were no longer produced in Australia. Partners, Sue Stewart and Sandy McDowell, recognized an emerging market for period fixtures and fittings as home renovators and businesses grew more cognizant of Australian architectural history and sought to save and revitalize pressed metal ceilings in private dwellings and public buildings. Dies for new patterns can be made to customer specifications and can reproduce any of the creative designs for which samples, or even honest photos, are available. Custom designs are also achievable through CAD and CBC machining. Wunderlite is now healthy obvious among st architects, builders and government institutions involved in heritage restoration projects. Over the years it has contracted to supply, and often also to install, reproduction designs into maximum of the major restoration projects carried out in the Country. For domestic installations the sheet is very easily installed by a capable carpenter, builder or handyman and in these cases, we are very happy to produce fixing instructions and advice over the phone.