{"id":377207,"date":"2025-12-29T01:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T01:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/377207\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T01:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T01:51:13","slug":"victorian-master-builder-transforms-warrnambool-house-into-castle-for-his-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/377207\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian master builder transforms Warrnambool house into castle for his son"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Victoria’s south-west, one man has taken the phrase “a man’s home is his castle” to a whole new level.<\/p>\n

The three-storey stone building, complete with a keep and a moat, certainly stands out in its quiet suburban cul-de-sac in the coastal city of Warrnambool, and has the potential to become a minor tourist attraction.<\/p>\n

But for Ray Hollingsworth, it is also his most personal construction yet.<\/p>\n

A builder for more than five decades, Ray loves taking on one-of-a-kind creative projects. And there’s nothing more “one of a kind” than creating a home for your son that is straight out of a fantasy book.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ray Hollingsworth says it is the most unique build of his long career. (ABC News: Olivia Sanders)<\/p>\n

A family affair<\/p>\n

Ray built the castle as a home for the eldest of his three sons, Richard, but says it serves as a home base for all of them, who grew up loving all things medieval.<\/p>\n

“It can be a childhood thing to love knights and dragons and medieval and fantasy stories,” he says.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Richard Hollingsworth loves all things knights; even his 2025 wedding was medieval themed. (ABC News: Olivia Sanders)<\/p>\n

That love carried through to adulthood, leading the brothers to start their own tabletop war-gaming business.<\/p>\n

Ray says he figured his sons needed an appropriate headquarters for the operation.<\/p>\n

\"Miniature<\/p>\n

The Hollingsworth brothers run a tabletop war-game business out of the castle’s basement. (ABC News: Olivia Sanders)<\/p>\n

“I said, ‘Let’s just build a castle,’ and so we built a castle,” he says.<\/p>\n

Adding ‘flair’ with medieval design<\/p>\n

It has taken the better part of three years to complete, but in almost every corner of this regal abode fit for a fantasy fanatic, there is a story to tell.<\/p>\n

The wrought-iron fencing is repurposed from a Victorian cemetery, the entry-way doors come from an old church a town over, and the Axminster carpet took months to arrive from England.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ray Hollingsworth finally has the perfect place to display a full suit of armour he received as a birthday gift. (ABC News: Olivia Sanders)<\/p>\n

“It’s all added great flair as we’ve gone along,” Ray says.<\/p>\n

Richard says the design constantly evolved, and his father never failed to make a new idea work.<\/p>\n

“The keep was a later addition that really changed it from a castle-themed house to feeling more like a castle-like building,” Richard says.<\/p>\n

“It really was the cherry on top.”<\/p>\n

“There’s no regulations in Australia for a keep, so we had to call it an attic,” Ray adds.<\/p>\n

\"Fake<\/p>\n

Fake skeletons adorned with leg-irons and handcuffs from Pentridge Prison hang on the dungeon walls. (ABC News: Olivia Sanders)<\/p>\n

At the back of the house is a games room dubbed “the dungeon”, where skeletons hang in leg irons and chains from Melbourne’s infamous Pentridge Prison.<\/p>\n

Richard’s brother Nicholas even designed and 3D-printed gargoyles to attach to the castle’s exterior.<\/p>\n

“Water shoots out [of] their mouth when it’s raining,” Richard says.<\/p>\n

\"Dark<\/p>\n

3D-printed gargoyles are scattered around the exterior of the home. (ABC News: Olivia Sanders)<\/p>\n

‘A dream come true’<\/p>\n

Ray is among an elite group of Australian builders who hold the title of master builder, a position reserved for those who produce the highest quality construction work and which can only be obtained through a series of stringent checks.<\/p>\n

He says he has always loved unique builds, but this one was truly special.<\/p>\n

“I’ve built a lot of different homes over the years, and this time I was allowed to build what I wanted, however I wanted to, and that’s why I just went nuts on this one,” Ray says.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never built a moat before, so there’s things that we had to learn as we went along.<\/p>\n

“This is my first castle.”\"A<\/p>\n

The Hollingsworths say they are a close-knit family, so much so that Richard and Ray are neighbours.\u00a0 (ABC News: Olivia Sanders)<\/p>\n

But beyond being creatively fulfilling, for Ray, the project has been a labour of love for his sons.<\/p>\n

“We’ve always been a very close family, that’s why I did it for them,” Ray says.<\/p>\n

“Not too many people have the opportunity to do something like this for their children; we are the wind beneath their wings, just to help them fly.”<\/p>\n

As for Richard, he and his wife moved in a few months ago, and he says they cannot imagine a more perfect home.<\/p>\n

“As a place to live and run a business, it’s like a dream come true,” he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Victoria’s south-west, one man has taken the phrase “a man’s home is his castle” to a whole…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,100794,595,203338,44,203341,203339,203340,203337,191319],"class_list":["post-377207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-castle","tag-fantasy","tag-master-builder","tag-news","tag-tabletop-wargames","tag-unique-homes","tag-unique-house","tag-wargaming","tag-warrnambool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}