Pennyroyal’s crown jewel reaches major milestone

THE quaint yet charming country hall in Pennyroyal has reached a major milestone thanks to the hall’s restoration committee.

The Pennyroyal Hall’s committee has announced the building, first built in 1912, is now open for bookings for the first time in almost a decade.

The hall, which the Colac Otway Shire stopped funding the upkeep of in 2015 and revoked all access, has undergone a comprehensive refurbishment over the past nine years to become usable.

It was not until 2019 that the hall was given back to the management committee after four years of requests to the shire.

Committee member Sharron Swaneveld says the group had used a variety of fundraising measures to accumulate the funds needed to get the hall to this stage.

 

 

“Whatever work we could do, we have done.

“We did sausage sizzles whenever we could; we held a cake stall at the Colac Area Health Winter Festival where we raised $2,500; we’ve cashed in cans for hundreds of dollars, anything we could have.

“It’s a big deal for us to reach this point.

“It now means the hall itself can start paying for itself, which is something we have not been able to do and we invite anyone eager to use the hall to reach out.”

The committee has also received grant assistance from Community Bank Surf Coast (Winchelsea) and the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal.

In total, the committee estimates it has raised more than $80,000 since 2015, with estimates of over $60,000 still needed to fix the building’s air conditioning/ventilation, painting and replacing the floorboards.

Fellow committee member and Leanne’s sister Leanne Callahan said the hall was open to a host of activities and functions, such as euchre nights, wedding celebrations, dance nights, school concerts, birthday parties, remembering past loved ones and tennis club functions.

“This place brings back memories of childhood for a lot of us, I have photos up on the stage from the old school concerts we did.

“That’s what this place means to so many people, making those memories, binding kids and families together, the only other option is to go into Colac, and many just cannot do that.

“I remember the Christmas tree barbecues we used to have here; I’d love for others to make similar memories. That’s why we’re so proud of the work we’ve done.”

Additional donations to the hall can be made at trybooking.com/au/donate/pennyroyalhall with booking enquiries able to be made directly through [email protected].