General News
6 May, 2024
Hanging on, hall makes birthday comeback
By CHRIS EARL DECADES of termite decay have been brushed aside for a birthday bash in Derby’s iconic tin hall last weekend. The 80th party for Christina Londsale on Saturday will be the first time the hall has been used in six years. And Rob...
By CHRIS EARL
DECADES of termite decay have been brushed aside for a birthday bash in Derby’s iconic tin hall last weekend.
The 80th party for Christina Londsale on Saturday will be the first time the hall has been used in six years.
And Rob Pollock organised a working bee on Anzac Day of family to dust away cobwebs and dirt for his cousin’s celebration.
“The white ants have really taken hold” he said.
Outside, Keith Pollock was scaling the roof of the century-plus old building, replacing tin sheets dislodged in recent storms.
And Glenn Symons was in the tractor cutting grass around the hall and in an adjoining paddock that was once the district’s sports ground.
“We had athletics carnivals there in the 1950s,” Rob said. It was also the local cricket ground.
Kathryn Pollock said the hall had been a hub for social gatherings.
“We had a lot of dances back in the old days ... busses would come from Bendigo.”
Electricity has long been disconnected at the hall but when power came to the area in 1956, the occasion was celebrated with a dance.
Kathryn said: “The hall has a lot of history. It’s the only thing left in Derby now ... it’s sad.”
Abandoned tennis courts last used almost a decade ago now sit within the shadow of a telecommunications tower.
Rob and Kathryn point out the old hall ticket box and the playing card symbols on the walls that selected winners of lucky spot competitions at dances and balls. “There used to be honour boards and a photograph of the Queen on the wall,” they said.
“But thieves took them about 20 years ago.”
One of the most photographed buildings on the Calder Highway, Derby hall will also be included in a new book cataloguing the social history of tin halls expected to be completed and published later this year by retired architect Anne Morley.
The Pollocks are excited the hall will host a birthday bash on Saturday.
“And I hope it hangs out till I turn 80 in a couple of years,” Rob said.