Woolbrook A.I.F. School of Arts Hall

About

This memorial School of Arts was built in 1920 in honour of those who served in the First World War. It is constructed from concrete blocks and has a portico and a high facade wall at the front, with supporting columns. The entrance is symmetrical, with two windows flanking the recessed front doorway. The design and building materials are unusual for a rural community hall, which tend to be simpler, timber structures with galvanised iron gable or lean-to roofs.  The hall was built in 1920 by Mr Mat Morgan. It was officially opened during Empire Day celebrations on Monday, 24 May 1920. Following a picnic and sports at the nearby recreation ground, some 300 people filled the hall for the ceremony. The event was reported in detail in the Daily Observer, 28 May. Mrs Berman, active participant in local war effort activities and mother to six sons who had served, opened the hall. During her speech she said: May [the hall] serve the noblest purposes for all time, and keep ever before us the highest ideals of our race for which our sailors and soldiers fought and died.  The construction cost approximately £680, £210 of which was outstanding at the opening. That December, another picnic and sports day was held to raise funds to help pay off this debt. The event was important as five trustees had agreed to take control of the hall when the debt was reduced to £200. The festivities were a success, raising almost £24 and bringing the debt under the agreed amount (Daily Observer, 16 December).    In April 1921, a meeting was held to make arrangements for taking over the machine gun awarded to Woolbrook by the Federal Government. It was decided to place the gun in the memorial hall on the afternoon of Empire Day, 24 May 1921 (Northern Daily Leader, 18 May 1921). The gun is no longer on site.