2016-10-17 General Committee Meeting Notes

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                              17 OCTOBER 2016


The Cooroy Memorial Hall (the Hall) was built in 1926 and was officially opened on the 20 August
1926. The Memorial Hall incorporated the former School of Arts building which was built in 1911
on the same site.

This Hall was originally called the Cooroy School of Arts Memorial Hall. It was built at a cost of
2000 Pounds with funds raised by community groups and local businesses. W D Fenwick
supplied architectural services and local saw miller F. Fenwick was the builder.

The Hall was used for showing movie films from the 1920s to the 1960s as well as many social
activities including:

   Dances and balls
   Wedding receptions and church services
   Anzac services and school concerts
   Speech nights, school and church fetes
   Indoor sports, arts and crafts and markets
   Public meetings, polling booths and club activities

A number of structural modifications and extensions were made to the Hall in the 1960s and
1970s.

By the 1970s there was a decline in social activity at the hall due in part to the advent of
television and also the construction of the Noosa Drive-in Theatre. As a result, the cinema in the
Hall was forced to close in 1970 which in turn further reduced the amount of activity in the Hall.

Fund raising balls and other functions to maintain the Hall have been a key feature of the Hall’s
history particularly from the 1970s onwards. A ball was held as late as February 2013 to raise
funds for essential works to the Hall.

Land Tenure

The land on which the Hall is built is a Deed of Grant in Trust (DOGIT) for Recreation and
Memorial Hall Purposes and for no other purpose whatsoever.

There are currently two buildings on the DOGIT, the Hall, which has a minor encroachment onto
Council freehold land to the east, and the RSL building which encroaches more significantly onto
Council land. See Attachment 1.

Since 1979 the trustee of the DOGIT on which both the RSL Club and the Hall are located has
been the Cooroy RSL Services and Citizens Memorial Club Inc (The Cooroy RSL).

In the early 1990s the Cooroy RSL decided not to relinquish trusteeship of the Hall to Council at
the same time as management of other Community Halls in the Shire were being relinquished to
Council, believing they could best manage the Hall.

Heritage Status

The building is part of the Maple St Cooroy Character area identified in the Noosa Plan’s
Heritage Overlay Code and is listed as a locally important heritage site. See extract from the
Noosa Plan below:




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