kalorama gets its hall back

The hall, built in 1910, restored to its former glory and reopened today will be used by the Mount Dandenong U3A, Mount Dandenong Primary School and the Mount Dandenong Historical Society to name a few.

I had the great privilege of attending the official re-opening of Farndons Community Hall (formerly known as the Kalorama CWA Hall) today. What a great day for the community to see this grand old lady restored to her former glory.

Back in 2004 the council of the day decided to close the hall, the sale of land advertised in The Age. The community where outraged by this decision and rightly so. The hall was a well loved community asset. The shire at the time had let the hall go into disrepair and the community could no longer use it, this was then used as a reason to justify the sell off of the hall and the land.

The community were galvanised into action when the council decided to sell off the hall.

After a very long community campaign and an election which saw a change of local councillors to ones who were far more sympathetic to the community, the future of the hall is secured.



With over 150 people attended the re-opening it was wonderful to be able to kick off the official opening.

The hall was packed to the rafters with community members and if today is any indication the hall is set to have a rosy future. It was a testament to the power of collective community energy to save the hall. It was a day that I never thought I would see, but thanks to the ongoing efforts of Jean Blencowe, her fellow committee members and a dedicated community we all had a great time celebrating this re-opening.

The new sign marks a new era for Farndons Hall.

Jean Blencowe never gave up fighting for Farndons Hall. The CWA sign behind us was originally put on the scrap heap, it was spotted by a neighbour who stored it for many years until they thought it was time to return it to its rightful home.