Country Hall upgrades (completed 2022)

• Project typeUpgrade
• Project value$98,843
• Project scheduleCompleted
• Completion Date29 August 2022

About the project

Earlier in 2022, we received funding from FRRR - the Foundation Rural Regional Renewal (Networks to Build Drought Resilience - Future Drought Fund) to upgrade the connectivity, communications and year round catering capacity at three country halls in the more remote farming districts of our Shire – Cornishtown, Sandy Creek and Stanley.  

We aimed to give these agriculture dependent communities the advantage of technology to enhance the range of social activities they can conduct, but importantly, to make these halls places for professional gatherings, workshops and meetings in order to drive community action on drought resilience and climate change. 

These facilities are the "hub" where shared experiences and history can be celebrated. This project injected new vitality and new opportunities into the hall networks and committees after a difficult and isolating Covid19 period.

We did this by:

• improving each hall for year round use, its catering amenities and facilities to host a range of recreational, social and professional networking events for each community
• connecting each hall to the world wide web improving access and use of digital technologies to communicate, educate and entertain
  supporting, upskilling and empowering our volunteer country hall committees to continue to serve as leaders in their communities, to engage with their farming communities and build on valued local networks

• conducting Drought Resilience workshops in these rural communities, professionally facilitated and in collaboration with a number of government agencies to build understanding of the risks posed by drought and climate change.

Why was this project undertaken?

While the country halls selected were in reasonable general condition, they were not future-fit.

Basic catering amenities were lacking or very dated, and two of the halls had no air conditioning with below zero temperatures in winter and plus forty temperatures in summer. Volunteer hall committees work extremely hard to manage facilities, but have limited capacity to raise funds needed to provide upgrades of this nature.  

Poor local internet and digital skills gaps also impact farmers' capacity to take up online learning at home.

What happened and when? 

Key activities included:

• Internet connection and 12 month plan
• Portable audio visual equipment (projector, screen, PA system) for online presentations and video streaming
• Minor improvements to basic catering facilities to complement existing resources
• Installation of air conditioning to provide year round capacity (2 halls only)
• Professionally facilitated joint hall committees workshop – ½ day strategy planning and networking session, grant opportunities and readiness and community resilience planning for drought and other disaster resilience
• Professionally facilitated one-day Drought & Farm Resilience workshops to each community to build knowledge and understanding of climate change risks and drought resilience specific to each farming type.
  
  

Timelines

Procurement processes for asset purchases and installations April – May 2022

Installations June 2022

Joint Halls “Governance, Networking & Hall Activation” workshop – Stanley Soldiers Memorial Hall June 20, 2022

Farm Resilience Workshops x 3 – Sandy Creek, Stanley & Cornishtown – early August, 2022

Project completion – August 29, 2022