12/02/2026
Update on Burrawang School of Arts Community Hall
Apologies that I haven’t given more frequent updates on progress and reopening date. We are deep in the weeds, solving seemingly never-ending challenges that keep arising on the extensions and improvements project; all of which require careful and responsible resolution, but most of which also lead to additional cost and delay.
But more of that in a moment.
Firstly, when will the School of Arts Community Hall be open again?
The BSoA Committee has a working timeline of 1st January 2027 as being the nominal reopening date and we are not planning any events or taking any tentative bookings before that date. So, sadly there will be no ball at the School of Arts hall again this year.
The actual re-opening date is not easy to predict and may be earlier or later than 1st January 2027. It is dependent on many things. We have a contractual construction timeline but as in all such contracts, extensions of time result from inclement weather and unforeseen adjustments to building works or other external events. Once construction is complete, we cannot reopen the hall until we receive an Occupation Certificate (OC) which must be applied for through the NSW Govt Planning Portal and must be signed off by the certifier. Recent experience suggests this process may take 3 months after construction work is complete; but there are no guarantees of any particular time for an OC to be issued.
So, our best guess is 1st January 2027, but we will update as the project progresses.
The good news is that a “Back in Business” working group within the BSoA Committee is beavering away on a program of events focusing on reigniting our long-standing community events so we can hit the ground running when we reopen. The Committee are keen to receive your suggestions, so please email them to [email protected].
Now to the grizzly details of the problems we’ve had to solve. Switch off now if this doesn’t interest you; but some may like to hear about a few examples of challenges we’ve faced thus far:
• Below Ground: you don’t know what is below the ground until you dig. But we know now. No, there were no significant archaeological relics; only concrete slabs/paths long since covered over that had to be jackhammered out, broken up and taken away. An old septic tank, replaced many years ago but left in the ground and filled up with rubbish, concrete and bricks also had to be removed.
• Foundations: as everyone knows, the buildings at the School of Arts date back to 1883 and building standards and practices were very different more than 140 years ago. As the builder was preparing the site for a new concrete slab for the storage facilities on the western side of the hall and another slab for a new conservatory on the eastern side, it became apparent that the walls of the Main Hall had insufficient foundations. So, additional civil and structural engineering design was required and the main hall walls had to be supported underneath and braced sideways so they didn’t collapse or fall over. Meanwhile the building team hand dug under the walls to allow the new slabs to be extended to support the Main Hall walls.
• Kitchen Services: waste plumbing from the kitchen buried within the concrete slab was discovered to be just standard PVC piping rather than the specialised high temperature piping required for trade waste from dishwashers, pot sinks, steam ovens etc. Concrete cutting and digging out old piping to replace with new was the only practical solution.
• Wall Frame Deterioration: as the builders prepared various wall areas to connect to new structures, they discovered that some timber stud framing hidden inside walls was rotted partly or completely due to water ingress or termite damage over the last 140 years; in some cases, it was a miracle that the walls were still standing. Walls have been repaired with careful attention to preserving the heritage character of the buildings and protecting against future damage.
• Drainage: as no substantive sub-surface drainage pipes were found on the site, additional drainage has been engineered and installed including fail-safe overflows to protect against water ingress to interior areas in extreme weather events.
• Electrical Supply: at this moment we are awaiting further electrical engineering input to ensure that the energy demands of the upgraded facility can be met. The project scope includes a transition from LPG for heating and cooking to electricity as a renewable resource via installation of a solar panels and battery system with significantly reduced reliance on the grid. But substantial design enhancements have been necessary due to the limited power supply availability from the grid in the village to cope with peak demand beyond the solar system capacity.
All the above issues (and this is not an exhaustive list) have presented the BSoA Project Team with lots of headaches to solve and have incurred substantial time delays and extra costs. However, the solutions chosen have been heavily influenced by ensuring that the BSoA hall historical heritage and character are preserved and that the hall will be in sound condition to serve the community for at least the next 140 years.
