The Burra Town Hall has a proud history dating back to 1875. 

Following the magnificent restoration and renovation efforts of a small band of hard working volunteers, the town hall celebrated its re-opening in style!  Fun was had by all.

The newly formed Burra Choir
Volunteer (and Burra Town Hall Committee member)  Meredith Satchell delivers a speech in response to the guest of honour

 


Dancing to the tunes of the Police band

The restoration, renovation and general promotion of the Town Hall has been a labour of love for local volunteers.  Here are some details of what the volunteers have been up to:-

  • Roy Taplin (retired painter) has been busy for the past few months not only painting the walls in the entrance, ceiling and main walls, but also repositioning a wall and putting in new floors for the entrance.  Roy is now beginning work on the stage area.  This entails replacing part of the ceiling in two places, painting the walls and woodwork and sealing the floor, as well as replacing the stencils on the proscenium arch, restoring them to their original design of the early 1900s.  After this he intends to paint a stencil all around the walls of the hall and paint the floor with two coats of paint and two of sealer.  Not to be content with all this, when the two council employees have finished stripping the paint of the giant front doors he will varnish them.  What can one say of Roy's phenomenal efforts?!  Roy is also a volunteer guide for the Historic Burra Photographic Display.

  • Phil Coulls (local sign writer) is painting a scene on the back wall of the stage so that it looks like one is in a grand house looking out on a garden and town scene beyond - and portraits on the wall.  His work is looking very impressive as it takes form.

  • Brenda Taplin has made curtains for all of the windows adding greatly to the graceful appearances of the building.  She is also going to make curtains for the Auditorium to cover the glass panes on the door from the foyer and for the Civic Room, plus preparing new tablecloths for the Town Hall.  Brenda is also a volunteer guide twice a week for the Historic Burra Photographic Display.

  • Gerry Baulderstone who also takes bookings for the Town Hall, has installed a sound and lighting room at the back of the hall. Gerry is also a guide for the Historic Burra Photographic Display.

  • Meredith Satchell (local historian and Bed & Breakfast owner) is amongst other things, concentrating on stripping paint off various structures (such as the staircase and stage) so that they can be seen in their original wooden glory.  Meredith is also a guide for the Historic Burra Photographic Display.

  • Volunteers John Fuss and Robert Reed are also guides for the Historic Burra Photographic Display and promote the Town Hall.

Below are a selection of photos of some of the restoration work in progress. 


Roy beginning the mammoth task of painting the auditorium
The stage showing signs of having been stripped of its paint on the right hand side
Phil in front of his blank "canvas"

Phil (left) and Roy busy at work
The stage wall showing the fire place and stairs, the white panel is where the scene looking out a window will be painted.
The portraits taking shape on the wall above the stairs, paint stripping in evidence.

The "window scene" in progress
The new look foyer
New look foyer - with new curtains

Roy starting to resurface the stage floor
Gerry (left) and John inspecting the new stage and lighting room constructed by Roy
Gerry installing equipment in the new stage and lighting room

On the left a 1926 photograph of a stage show, which revealed a long lost proscenium arch stencil.  On the right, Roy revealing the old stencil.		   
On the left, ready for the application of the replica stencil.  On the right, the new stencil is in place - 4th September, 2006.
Roy doing some finishing touches on the new proscenium arch stencil

Brenda ironing the new table cloths in the Mary Warnes Room
Below Roy is painting the mural around the walls of the hall, he spent many hours at home cutting the stencil
Gerry, Roy and Peter have an informal meeting

A rare shot of Roy at work on the stage before he enclosed the stairs - the door on the right under the stairs is now in place as shown in the next photo.
View of the stage showing the cupboard under the stairs - the windows will have curtains
Roy at work applying a coat of finish to the stage floor.

Roy stripping varnish from the edge of the floor.
Roy spent 3 days stripping varnish, banging nails into the masonite, cleaning the joins with a handsaw (see next photo), filling nail holes and joins!
Roy used a saw to clean out the gaps between the sheets of masonite (unfortunately the old floor boards wore out years ago and a layer of masonite was put down, which is why the floor will be painted)
Hopefully this new sander lasts the distance!  The previous one gave up halfway through sanding the hall floor, although admittedly it had been given quite a work out prior to that.

The floor in the hall after Roy spent the day filling all the gaps and nail holes
Rare photo of one of our busy volunteers, Meredith Satchell - she prefers to be the one behind the camera & not in front of it
The mural taking shape - the lines are where Phil intends to paint the door and window frames

And for those of you wondering how many volunteers it takes to carry a ladder...
The stage before
And after - Brenda's lovely new curtains add a special touch

Some of the volunteers after a meeting - Roy, Pauline,  Darryl Venning (Chairperson) in front of the stage, Murray is behind Roy and Gerry is on the stage.
The rear of the stage before
And after.  The table was stripped by Meredith.  The chairs came from the National Trust archives, however they were originally from the Town Hall.

Evan and Ron working in the new History Room
The History Room near completion
Ron Christie, Rom Smedley and Evan Hawke

Gary and Roy trying out the old slide projector
Phil relaxing in front of his newly decorated  fireplace...
...and finished mural

A close up of the stage in her new renovated glory
The stage
The back of the auditorium