October 26, 2017
The Nanango Tourism and Development Association (NaTDA) will lease a former Nanango school house from the South Burnett Regional Council to create a permanent “home” for the organisation.
The school house is located in the grounds of the Ringsfield House historical complex in Nanango, which is owned by the Council and was formerly run by the Nanango Historical Society.
In March the Historical Society had to reluctantly terminate its 20-year lease, citing an ageing membership and a shortage of volunteers as the reasons it could no longer continue running the complex.
The Society agreed to compile an inventory of all the historical artefacts held for display at Ringsfield, along with their maintenance and cleaning procedures, to ensure they were properly cared for into the future.
Ringsfield’s doors closed on March 31 to allow the audit to be carried out.
It was originally expected to take 6 to 8 weeks, after which the Council hoped to call tenders and reopen Ringsfield with a new operator in May or June.
However the audit turned out to be a bigger task than expected, and the Council was unable to call tenders until August.
In September, the Council announced it had awarded a tender to operate Ringsfield House to Nanango businessman Beau Smith, who is believed to want to use main building as a function and wedding reception venue.
The Historical Society will now have to complete its audit and remove any of its remaining items by the end of October so that Mr Smith can re-open Ringsfield in early November.
But since Mr Smith’s lease only covers Ringsfield House and not any other buildings in the grounds, NaTDA also approached the Council soon after the tender was announced to see if the Council would agree to lease the school house to the group.
On Tuesday, NaTDA president Barry Green and secretary Gloria Kirkness met with Council CEO Gary Wall and Mayor Keith Campbell to negotiate an initial 12-month lease on the property, subject to a range of mutually agreed conditions.
The proposed lease was put to the group’s members at NaTDA’s monthly meeting on Thursday night, and adopted unanimously.
Mr Green said the group hope to use the school house as a meeting room and storage area, but also hope to carry out genealogical research there as well.
“Nanango is the fourth oldest town in Queensland and many families here go back for many, many generations,” he said.
“People who work in this area have traced many family trees back a long way and there is a lot of public interest in this, so I think it’s something NaTDA can help with.”
Related articles:
- Ringsfield Leased To Private Operator
- Council Calls Tenders For Ringsfield
- Ringsfield Bidders Back Out
- Three In Running For Ringsfield House?
- Ringsfield EOIs Open This Friday
- Ringsfield House Reopening Delayed
- New Operator Sought For Ringsfield
- Public Meeting To Discuss Ringsfield
- What’s The Future For Ringsfield?
