Metres-high scaffolding was put in place around the Dubbo Telephone Exchange and its iconic clock tower at 98 Macquarie Street, drawing an audience.

The progress comes two months after civil engineer and businesswoman Jillian Kilby bought the unoccupied property from Telstra.

Her vision is to bring the building back to life and transform it into a community co-working space to create a home for small and start-up businesses.

With scaffolding in place at the site, preservation and painting could start, she said.

The engineer forecast the works would take a couple of months, with repairs to the render needed before painting.

“It’s not an easy process, because there’s so much cleaning back to do,” she said.

The property owner reported paint company Dulux had prepared a specification with attention given to “what will be most durable” for the 1880s-era building, the city’s former post office.

It was a product that had been used before on other heritage buildings including the Forbes Post Office, she said.

Ms Kilby also revealed “natural white” had been chosen as the colour.

“Our aspiration is that the building looks really fresh and vibrant and, it’s got a new start, essentially,” Ms Kilby said.

“We want it to be a blank canvas for the people who work there to call their own home, their business home, or their business headquarters.

“And I guess that’s why we’re going for such a clean fresh approach.

“It’s so important that we reverse the stigma associated with eight years of being unoccupied, and that’s one of the reasons we chose to go with a natural white.”

Old photos showed the building had been one colour, Ms Kilby said.

“So we’re going for this really neutral clean look, and our aspiration is that when people look at it six months from now, they say, ‘wow, it’s brilliant’,” she said.

Community interest in the project was on display when the scaffolding was put in place, Ms Kilby said.

“I got a text message from Luke O’Connor who is Dubbo Scaffolding, and it just said people are standing around, watching it go up,” she said.

“I think that really summarises the real public interest and the community appreciation for the building as well.”

While the works to the exterior have caught the attention of community members, Ms Kilby’s team are tackling other challenges as well.

Providing a new power and water service to the building is a “priority right now”.

“We’re separating services and Essential Energy, we had three from the team at Essential Energy on site in December and they were so helpful troubleshooting how to get a new power connection to an existing building in such a busy, congested area,” she said.

The 2018 Agrifutures NSW/ACT Rural Woman of the Year, Ms Kilby provided seed-funding for The Exchange, a new community of start-up businesses at Dubbo.

The Macquarie Street building will be another home for The Exchange, which already operates with free co-working space at Charles Sturt University’s Dubbo campus.

Ms Kilby told of her passion for the endeavour.

“This project brings me a lot of joy, that would be the best way to describe it,” she said.

“I guess I’ve never felt so engaged in my work or so driven by a purpose that is so much greater than I will ever be.”