February 16, 2022
South Burnett Regional Council has agreed to contribute up to $225,000 – half the cost – to carry out urgent repairs to Mondure Hall.
The money is half the estimated $450,000 cost of restumping the building, repairing the roof and repositioning a disabled access ramp.
Mondure Hall’s committee will seek the remaining $225,000 from the Super Round of the State Government’s Gambling Communities Benefit Fund.
The hall’s future was discussed at last week’s Community Standing Committee meeting.
Councillors heard the hall’s present condition was “very poor” and the building needed substantial work to bring it up to standard.
At the moment, the stumps holding up the building were in such poor condition the floor was beginning to warp in places, and the roof suffered more than $118,000 damages in a 2018 storm.
Because of the soil the hall was built on, it would be necessary to replace the wooden stumps with steel stumps that needed to be sunk as much as 1.5 metres below ground level.
Some of the floor’s wooden bearers would also need to be replaced with steel.
These things would make restumping more difficult and expensive than usual.
The hall’s roof would also need to be completely replaced and while insurance would cover part of the cost, a further funding injection was required.
The meeting heard that when offered the choice between a new hall and repairing the existing building, the Hall Committee had chosen repairs because a majority of its members had historic family connections to the property.
Councillors were told the Hall was often used for functions in the Mondure area and had served the district for almost a century.
However, the property was held in trust by Council and its day-to-day management was carried out by the Hall Committee.
In the end, Councillors voted unanimously to fund any shortfall in the upgrade costs but will seek a commitment from the Hall Committee that once these upgrades are carried out, the group will assume responsibility for all future building upgrades.
Cr Scott Henschen warned that committees can change over time and that the hall’s maintenance costs could increase substantially.
As a result, a future hall committee might be reluctant – or unable – to honour any maintenance agreement.
The SBRC released tender documents for the re-stumping of the hall last Thursday (February 10) with offers to close on March 3.
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