Community partnership to restore Cooroy hall

Council and the community have joined forces to revitalise Cooroy Memorial Hall.

Last night Council committed $192,000 from the Heritage Levy to help repair and upgrade the hall.

The Cooroy Memorial Hall Association (CMHA) will match Council’s funding dollar-for-dollar in cash, goods or in-kind services.

The Association will oversee the restoration project, and, once it’s complete, manage the hall on a five-year lease arrangement.

Council consulted with the community last year to decide the hall’s future, after taking over from Cooroy RSL as trustee of the State-owned land.

Mayor Tony Wellington said Council was pleased to partner with the newly-formed community association to preserve the historic hall.

“Cooroy Memorial Hall is in good hands. There is no shortage of valuable skills among the Cooroy Memorial Hall Association’s members, who include an architect, a builder and a structural engineer,” he said.

“I congratulate the Cooroy community. They’ve rallied to the cause and taken on significant responsibility to make this happen. There can be no questioning the passion of many Cooroy residents for this historic structure.

“The hall’s deterioration was not a problem of Council’s making, but we are pleased to be able to partner with the community to restore the building and see it once again become a hub of community activity,” the Mayor said.

The community built Cooroy Memorial Hall in 1926 in memory of soldiers killed in the Great War. It closed in 2012 due to safety concerns.

The Association will enlist a registered builder to carry out maintenance and upgrade the hall’s kitchen, toilets and entry points.

21 April 2017