While knocking out their fire place, the couple were pleasantly surprised to discover a snippet of the Queanbeyan Age newspaper dating back to May 7, 1944.

The little piece of newspaper was found wedged between the wall and chimney and while small in size, the information it contains is illuminating.

"I was fascinated by this. World War II was going on, an American ship was sunk in the Pacific and there's an ad for the war bonds," Mr Gillard said.

"Winston Churchill was meeting John Curtin in the UK. I've studied a fair bit of history at university and I'm absolutely fascinated by this stuff and just thinking about the context in that someone was reading it and wanted to use it to burn things in the fire. It's really, really interesting."

The couple have sought to find the full pages in old newspaper archives. They plan to put the clipping in a small frame and place it somewhere around the house.

It is one of the nicer finds for the couple as they have also stumbled across the carcass of a cat and a mummified dead rat during the renovations process.

"Old houses have some gross things in it," Mr Gillard said.

The couple's plasterer Aolys Kaminski found the clipping and said it's not the first time he has found old bits of treasure while working on local houses.

He previously found five or six sheets dating back to the 1920s in another property he worked on.

They were hiding underneath render around the windows and the newspaper had been folded and used to seal the gaps.

"You always find something in the older homes. Always," he said.

"When they built these old homes, they would bring the paper to work like everybody else and have a read.

"The builders would put them under the floorboards or get rid of the rubbish and put them in the walls and that's where they end up."

What historical gems have you discovered while renovating? Let's us know at the Queanbeyan Age by emailing kim.pham@fairfaxmedia.com.au.