Since Sylvia Christie helplessly watched her beloved Reliquaire engulfed by flames, she and her family have been overwhelmed by the support they’ve received.
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The iconic 28-room Latrobe store, known for its eclectic stock and labyrinth-like layout, was completely destroyed in a Christmas Eve blaze.
The family have converted the majority of Mr and Mrs Christie’s Victorian-style home into a smaller but equally eccentric reincarnation of Reliquaire.
They opened their home about three weeks ago, while they wait to start rebuilding Reliquaire at the original Gilbert Street site.
"Someone suggested that we probably should have it here in this lovely home that we bought five months before the fire,” Mrs Christie said.
“I went 'no', but then I thought about it and it actually lends itself really well to everything that we have, or had...we thought, ‘well, maybe that's a good idea,’."
Their Hamilton Street home, within a mere 200 metres of the original Reliquaire, was overtaken with dolls, crystals and other assorted items, whilst the conservatory was transformed into a charming cafe.
The Christmas Eve fire may have completely destroyed the original store, but Mrs Christie said the family tried their best to be optimistic, and were extremely thankful there were no casualties.
The fire, caused by a faulty switchboard, resulted in $3 million in damages.
Mrs Christie’s daughter Lauren was inside the store and received an electric shock but managed to flee with her father, Kim, while Mrs Christie was at home.
"My other daughter rang up and she said 'Mum, get over here, Lauren's just been electrocuted and there's a fire in the building’," Mrs Christie said.
"I just tore down the street, I could see the smoke coming up and I just bawled my eyes out and screamed.
"I just cried all day, just sitting there watching it burn, literally."
Mrs Christie said she felt completely helpless as she watched the building, which she and her husband purchased in 1992, go “completely up in smoke”.
“Kim and I had been there for 24 years and as a business open for 21, and we poured our heart and soul into it," she said.
In the following days the family was inundated with sympathies and affection.
"It was a bit like a funeral,” Mrs Christie said.
“We had lots of people come around and lots of tears and hugs."
Immediately after the blaze, Latrobe locals begun to question how the family would move forward and what form Reliquaire would take.
“A huge impact has been the community saying 'we want you back,'...on Facebook, on social media, the days after the fire were absolutely incredible," Mrs Christie said.
The Latrobe community was intrinsic to the family’s decision to reopen.
Although Mr and Mrs Christie momentarily considered retiring, the family came to the conclusion that planning to rebuild Reliquaire at its original site, and finding a temporary location in the meantime, were the right actions to take.
In the intermediary before they opened their home, the Christies set up a two-room pop-up Reliquaire store nearby at their daughter’s home for about four weeks.
A crowdfunding campaign helped them gather funds to initially begin restocking.
"Because we literally had nothing, the whole computer system and everything was all burnt, we were lucky we had the email system so we could contact all our international suppliers...and get things relatively quickly from them," Mrs Christie said.
Opening the temporary shop meant moving furniture and supplies from their Hamilton Street home to the pop-up location.
The expansive stock Reliquaire was renowned for had to be significantly narrowed down, whilst adhering to their signature eclectic aesthetic.
Mrs Christie said the family ensured the most popular items returned to the store, including marionettes, dolls, puppets, paintings and antique furniture.
Sylvia, her husband Kim and their daughters Lauren, 24, and Emily, 27, work together at Reliquaire, alongside Emily’s husband James Johnstone, 30.
They made a joint decision to continue Reliquaire’s legacy.
The family refashioned the majority of the Hamilton Street residence to accommodate a stock collection as unique as Reliquaire’s.
"I had furniture for our home and I've just changed it so it suits this,” Mrs Christie said.
"The bed upstairs was just a guest room bed, we just put dolls on it, the couch in the dining room was a formal room for us to sit on and so we just put bears and dolls on there," she said.
The home now has eight rooms devoted to eclectic stock, including a crystal mine and a dragon’s dungeon.
The layout gives a uniquely Reliquaire-style visit, differentiating it from other stores.
Mr Christie and Mrs Christie purchased the home five months before the fire, anticipating they could live there as they transitioned to retirement.
"I bought this building because I loved it, I could see it being lovely for having grandchildren...it's a Victorian building, I love that old feel of things, it's private, it's got a beautiful garden," Mrs Christie said.
Little did the couple know having the house would be a saving grace after the devastating blaze.
They had previously lived at the Gilbert Street store, which was originally a hotel, built in 1870.
The Christie family anticipates the Gilbert Street site will be rebuilt within 12 and 18 months.
Mrs Christie said the Gilbert Street shop would have an old world feel.
"It's really overwhelming,” Mrs Christie said.
“Sometimes I get really tearful just because of how nice people have been, in that sense it's really amazing,” she said.
"You do become grateful and you just think of the positive things."
Reliquaire at 14 Hamilton Street, Latrobe is open seven days a week between 9am and 5pm.
