General News
19 June, 2026
Preservation of Moliagul hall to benefit from grant
Moliagul Hall’s committee are “ecstatic” to hear the preservation and interior works to their hall are now possible thanks to a $15,000 Tiny Towns grant.
The committee remembers the days where Moliagul’s old Mechanics Institute was so badly contaminated with termites, grants like the one they just received didn’t exist yet, and the hall was condemned by the shire.
As a result, it was demolished in the mid 1990s.
Moliagul still had their historic school building further up the hill.
However, committee member Rick Gale recalls the severe disrepair and vandalism that had happened inside since the school had closed down.
“The north wall of the hall has unfired bricks, in the 1800s when [the old hall] was built, they were made with very soft bricks. They crumble away,” he said.
“So we have had holes ... the building is deteriorating and we just have to keep up the maintenence ... it’s ongoing but of course that’s why we need the money.”
Another committee member, Lyn Gale recalls three of the long time committee members, Philip Vernon and brothers Shayne and Les Carless restoring the site, using what could be salvaged from the Mechanics Institute,
“It was all left derelict. Some of the current committee members were here when the old hall had to be pulled down and they rectified this school to be their hall in the community,” she said.
However, following numerous attempts and years of repairs, Ms Gale said the committee finally have the support they need to improve the hall’s interior.
“We do have to get somebody in to do these works, it can’t just be done by working bees anymore,” she said.
“It will go toward total repair of the painting, it’s a big job. There is a lot of filling that has to be done, and it’s got to be sanded.”
After the school was built in 1871, when the area boomed following the Welcome Stranger’s discovery, the school could hold around 92 children.
When the school closed, there were only about seven students.
The committee wants to maintain their historical asset, which homes decades worth of class photos, with some of the former students having gone on to become committee members.
The black boards even show the school curriculum from the 1940s, preserved behind perspex, so visitors can see the content that would have been taught 80 years ago.
“There are still community members who would like to use [the hall] ... we’d like to keep it going and not close it off because once it closes off, it goes back to being derelict again,” Ms Gale said.
“Shayne has been on the committee for 51 years, Les for 29 and Stella Deason for 35 years.”
Some of the hall’s most recent
uses include funerals, wakes, Christmases, old school reunions, and being a meeting place when local groups host events.
To honour Royal Flying Doctor Service founder, John Flynn, who was born in Moliagul, the Central Australian Flynn Society have even returned for commemorative events.
“Reverend John Flynn’s father was the headmaster here, he was the first headmaster at this school from 1871 to around 1883,” Ms Gale said.
“The Flynn Society came here and had a really big event.”
The committee said receiving the grant “takes the pressure” off them to maintain their hall, and are thrilled to hear they have recently been successful.
“We are very, very grateful for the Tiny Towns grant that has come through this time,” Ms Gale said.
“We are ecstatic ... we are very grateful to for Martha Haylett, Liesbeth Long, and DEECA, they all gave us great letters of support but also members of the community who have lived here all of their lives.”