November 19, 2025
Former military huts at the Kingaroy Showgrounds will be removed from Council’s Local Heritage Register after a vote at the November meeting of the South Burnett Regional Council.
This means any impediment to the demolition of the two linked Trade Hall buildings has now been removed although a permit for building works will still be required.
The World War II-era huts were shifted to the showgrounds from the airbase at Kingaroy Airport in the 1950s for use as an exhibition hall.
The South Burnett Show Society wants to remove the buildings: “because of the asbestos in the buildings it has become a major health and safety aspect so for the ongoing day-to-day operation of our caravan park and future shows this needs to be dealt with”.
The buildings have fibro walls and a corrugated cement sheeting roof.
The Show Society told Council it would erect a photo display about the history of the buildings and their transport to the showgrounds.
Cr Jane Erkens opposed the removal from Local Heritage Register saying other councillors had valued the buildings in the past and had wanted to preserve them.
She suggested that if the buildings had been better maintained over the decades, it would now not be a problem.
Other councillors disagreed. Cr Danita Potter admitted she would have preferred if the buildings could have been moved back to the airport but the cost was too great.
The description on the Local Heritage Register reads:
A row of former military huts are located to the north-east of the entrance and are set at a right angle to Youngman Street.
Generally, the huts are rectangular timber structures on low timber stumps, clad with weatherboards to waist height followed by fibro sheeting. The huts are covered with corrugated cement sheeted gable roofs with ventilators. Access is from the gable side on the front and rear via single/double doors and concrete and timber steps and ramps.
The buildings include a variety of window configurations including casement and hopper windows either single, in banks or extending along the entire length of the buildings, with some of the windows painted over.
The first two buildings (from the entrance) are detached and the southernmost building has a small extension off its western side. A roof and front awning cover part of the gap between the two huts. Following on to the northeast are two sets of two huts joined on the side. A narrow, smaller section is set in-between, joining the two sets.
From the rear it appears as one large building but from the front it appears as two halls, the ‘Trade Hall’ and ‘Education Display’ buildings.
The smaller section that connects that two halls is set back at the front. A mural depicting a show is located on the rear of the building on the small section in the middle during the Kingaroy Show.
Councillors voted 6-1, with Cr Erkens opposed, to remove the Trade Hall buildings from the Local Heritage Register.
NB. Other wartime buildings from the airport were relocated to various locations around Kingaroy at the same time, including to the old Kingaroy Shire Council depot in Pound Street (now demolished). Other remnants of the former RAAF and USAAF base at Kingaroy Airport have also disappeared over the years, although several buildings do remain and have been repurposed for use by the Kingaroy Men’s Shed and the Kingaroy Soaring Club. A diorama depicting the airport layout during World War II is located at the Kingaroy Heritage Museum.
What a shame. This council seems too progressive and not asking the community.
If fibro walls are your greatest concern, better not look to closely at the earlier homes built in the South Burnett.