The Mechanics Hall located in the former gold mining town of Bullumwaal has recorded the milestone of its 130th birthday.
To celebrate the event the Mechanics Hall will be open to visitors from 11am to 2pm on Sunday, August 24.
There will be a local history and gold mining artefacts on display, as well as a gun from World War I, which was kept in the hall for many years.
A sausage sizzle and light refreshments will also be available.
Built to provide a free library and community hall for social and other events, it is one of the last original buildings of the township.
The hall is built on land donated by John Buckley, who was a storekeeper, postmaster and member of the Gippsland Mining Board during the town’s boom time in the 1880s and 1890s.
Following the discovery of gold in the creeks and rivers in the area in the mid-1850s, the Boggy Creek was extensively prospected, alluvial mining stripping any easily sought after gold.
By the late 1880s and into the 1890s the community was flourishing, with the establishment of substantial quartz mines, the best known being the Beehive and the Sons of Freedom, which operated in and near the township.
With an increasing population in the 1890s, social activities were an important part of the community and included sports such as cricket and football, picnic days, music and drama clubs.
Social dances and fundraising were also popular, and it became apparent that a hall was needed to host these community activities.
On May 28, 1894 a well-attended meeting of the residents was held at Waite’s Hotel to take steps to form a mechanics institute.
The residents voted in favour of a mechanics’ institute and free library to be established.
The local progress association was to manage the construction of a building, having already raised a sum of £9 10s, for just such a purpose.
A building fund was established, and although the final cost of hall construction is not known, the Mechanics Hall was completed and in use by August 1895.
The hall contains a stage curtain which is unique in Victoria as it is one of the only remaining painted stage curtains, and the only one conserved in its original location.
The curtain was created in 1897, the same year that the township changed its name from Boggy Creek to Bullumwaal, and may well have been linked to this event, as a “Monster Bazaar” and fundraising event was documented in the local papers of the time.
