The Estonian House Co-Operative Society Board was proud to welcome our shareholders and the wider Estonian community to the Grand Reveal event on Sunday, 6th April 2025.
The day was a great success, with an incredible turnout and overwhelming support for everyone involved in the renovation and building works at Eesti Maja. It was exciting to see the changes that have brought new life and a positive outlook to our community spaces.
Guests enjoyed refreshments as we christened the newly completed kitchen and bar, sharing stories and celebrating the hard work that has gone into transforming the Sydney Estonian House.
My speech is available to read below as well as Sulev Kalamäe’s address, the Honorary Consul of Estonia, Sydney who spoke at this special event.
We thank everyone who joined us and made the day so special.
Suur tänu,
Grahame Reinthal
Chairman
Estonian House Co-Operative Society Limited
Photo Gallery
Photos thanks to Esmée Okamoto
Grahame Reinthal’s Celebration Speech
Good afternoon and welcome to this auspicious occasion. Today we celebrate a significant milestone for the Estonian community here in Sydney. About 85 years ago, our forebears, including my grandparents, had the foresight to purchase this land and then see the laying of the foundation stones of this building. In the intervening decades, many changes have been made to what is now an old, but venerable building.
About 5 years ago, after years of debate about the way forward, Co-Op shareholders and all key stakeholders agreed to commit to what we now call our Master Plan for Eesti Maja.
In February 2020 we (the Co-Op Board) established the Planning Sub-committee, led by Hillar Ranniko and with its members well-representing the Estonian community, including architects, Aldo Raadik and Giles Parker. This committee held consultative meetings with all sections of the Sydney Estonian community to explore their needs and wishes for ongoing and future uses of Eesti Maja.
The Master Plan was thus developed as a 3-stage, iterative process. In February 2021, the Master Plan was presented to all stakeholders, and based on the feedback, the Master Plan was then fine-tuned to its final form.
At its heart, Stage 1 essentially involved creating a new, purpose-built location for Archives. This was to free up the upstairs areas to be leased out commercially, thus generating an income stream to finance the subsequent stages of the Master Plan. However, at that time, the Co-Op had limited cash reserves, and so it was marvellous that grants from ECFA and later from the NSW Govt enabled this process to begin.
Covid intervened, but we endured!
Of course, as soon as you touch an old building, you have to comply with all current regulations and safety standards. So, Stage 1 also involved many more costly things such as disability toilets, disability ramping, new wiring, new plumbing, new fire safety matters and so on.
But Stage 1 was successfully completed, with Hillar doing the heavy lifting supported by Arne, and we met all the regulatory requirements and approvals.
And the completion of Stage 1 was a great relief, because – a bit like those puzzles where you slide the pieces around so that you can then move another piece into position – all subsequent stages were dependent on the success of Stage 1.
Nevertheless, by then our cash reserves were quite low, so progress to Stage 2 seemed to have a more distant time horizon until we gradually accumulated rent money from our tenants.
However, the very generous bequest from Maud Kaljot changed all that, and helped us complete Stage 2 much faster than previously anticipated. Thank you, Maud.
And so here we are with Stage 2 today. A new, modern commercial kitchen and bar area, more toilets, revamped rear courtyard access, new storage areas, and so on and so on, and again, this has all also involved bringing things up to current code.
And so now I say…
Thank you to the Co-Op Board members, who have helped manage and navigate through all the processes that have got us to where we are today, from the agreement to develop a Master Plan in the first place, through the Master Plan development, through Stage 1, through leasing out the upstairs areas, through Stage 2 and the myriad of details that all of this has entailed.
Thank you particularly to Hillar and Giles. Stage 2 could not have come to fruition without the professional architectural and building skills, the dedication, and the hard work and focus of Hillar and Giles. I thank them both on behalf of the Co-Op Board and all shareholders and stakeholders in Eesti Maja. Also, thank you to Toivo who did all the clever joinery.
And thank you to our whole Eesti community, and also our neighbours in Goodchap Street, for putting up with all the noise and dust recently!
For the event today, I also say thank you to:
* Aino, who organised Trybooking
* Ave and Giles who moved all the crockery and cutlery yesterday
* Tiiu Pikkat for the catering
* Tiiu, Nora and Kara for cakes
* Rachael and Mel who are our wait-people today
* Taimi and Kara who are behind the bar
* Kieren and Ella for the music.
And thank you to all of you for coming today to celebrate this milestone with us.
Speech by Honorary Consul of Estonia, Sulev Kalamäe
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today in this year 2025, we are gathered here at Sydney Eesti Maja to celebrate the opening of Stage 2 of the Estonian House Upgrade. As fellow shareholders of the Estonian House Co-operative Society, we can all be proud of what has been achieved here by the Board of the Co-operative, for the benefit of the users of this house.
Härrad ja daamid, if I could indulge you for a moment with a bit of a history lesson, to help set the context of why we are here today.
100 years ago, it was a very busy time here in Sydney for our forefathers and predecessors, many of whom had left Estonia during the difficult economic times of the 1920s. As hard-working Estonians typically do anywhere they settle, they get organised and form societies!
In 1927, the members of the two pre-existing and competing Estonian societies – ‘Eesti Kodu’ (established 100 years ago this October) and another Estonian society called ‘Linda’ (formed two years later in 1927) agreed to merge, to form the present Estonian Society of Sydney ‘Eesti Kodu Linda’.
From day one, the members of the new Society realised they needed to stop renting random rooms in Sydney, and aspired to hold their gatherings in their very own house.
So just 11 years after our present Estonian Society of Sydney was born in 1927, the Society paid for a block of land here at 141 Campbell Street (originally purchased at auction by one brave Richard Kalpus), and then on 8 April 1938 (almost 87 years ago today) the Estonian House Co-operative was established – specifically to become the legal entity & landowner with the required authority to construct an Estonian House, for the benefit of the members of the Sydney Estonian Society.
Construction of Sydney Eesti Maja subsequently commenced in March 1940 and local Anton Trumm agreed to be the builder.
Many of you have seen that at the front of Eesti Maja there is a foundation stone. Almost exactly 85 years ago this week, my predecessor at the time the Honorary Estonian Vice-Consul Arvid Mielen, laid this foundation stone on 13 April 1940.
The stirring inscription on the stone says – “ÜHENDUSES ON JÕUD” / STRENGTH IS IN UNITY.
For some of you, this might sound quite ironic, because from the very minute Eesti Maja was completed some months later in August 1940, when Honorary Vice-Consul Arvid Meilen – this time as chairman of the Cooperative Society – symbolically handed over the keys of Eesti Maja to the Sydney Estonian Society, sadly then began decades of strong differences of opinion (even legal disputes) between the Co-operative and the Estonian Society.
I am pleased to see that with the more recent election of new boards to both the Co-operative and the Estonian Society this period of counter-productive behaviour is now but history, and I trust that this recent Stage 2 Building Upgrade executed by the Cooperative will demonstrate to the world, that the Estonian community in Sydney has entered a new era of co-operation, growth and prosperity.
These brand new facilities – including new bar and kitchen and toilets – will vastly improve the ability of Sydney Eesti Maja to successfully accommodate the various community groups, and visitors alike, for decades to come.
Whilst there is no actual physical foundation stone for me to dedicate on this important occasion, as the current Honorary Consul of Estonia I am however able to again confidently echo the words uttered by my predecessor Arvid Mielen 85 years ago – ÜHENDUSES ON JÕUD”!
As was first done back in April 1940, congratulations are once again sent to you from the distant Republic of Estonia, on achieving this tremendous milestone.
Elagu Eesti!
Sulev Kalamäe
Honorary Consul of the the Republic of Estonia in Sydney
