Meningie Area Community Centre

16/09/2025

Many Meningie residents will now be aware that Council has confirmed the encumbrance placed on Wadmore House by the Minister for Education and Children’s Services in 2007 has recently been lifted. The formal documentation is the final step, now awaited.
What may not be widely known is that the property was transferred to the Coorong District Council in 2007 without any exchange of money. The title deed still records the Minister’s encumbrance, and at that time the property was under a long lease to Orana.

With Orana having vacated the premises some years ago, and the Minister agreeing to remove the encumbrance that Orana originally requested, Council is now in a stronger position to determine the future of this significant local site.

In 2021, Council released a report following community consultation. Since then, a dedicated working group of residents has written numerous letters and presented deputations to the Mayor and Councillors, consistently advocating for the property to be returned to community use.

The group has now gained wider community support for this vision. However, as it is not a constituted body, it cannot transact in its own right. To overcome this, the group has engaged the well-established and highly regarded Tailem Bend Community Centre (TBCC) to explore potential ownership or lease arrangements for all or part of the Wadmore Precinct.

While some may associate TBCC solely with Tailem Bend, it is important to note that the organisation now delivers Government–funded services across 14 district council areas, in addition to our own Coorong District Council. Collectively, these 15 councils represent a huge geographical area of South Australia. To reflect this expanded reach, TBCC has created a dedicated division—Community Transport South Australia (CTSA) Riverland, Murray Mallee, Limestone Coast (RMC) —which highlights its scale, professionalism, and success.

Discussions between the various parties are expected to commence shortly. It is hoped that further positive developments will be available to share with the community in the near future. Should an agreement be reached, the operation and funding of the site will be driven by the commitment and efforts of local Meningie residents.

Comments or questions: [email protected]

16/09/2025

Many Meningie residents will now be aware that Council has confirmed the encumbrance placed on Wadmore House by the Minister for Education and Children’s Services in 2007 has recently been lifted. The formal documentation is the final step, now awaited.
What may not be widely known is that the property was transferred to the Coorong District Council in 2007 without any exchange of money. The title deed still records the Minister’s encumbrance, and at that time the property was under a long lease to Orana.

With Orana having vacated the premises some years ago, and the Minister agreeing to remove the encumbrance that Orana originally requested, Council is now in a stronger position to determine the future of this significant local site.

In 2021, Council released a report following community consultation. Since then, a dedicated working group of residents has written numerous letters and presented deputations to the Mayor and Councilors, consistently advocating for the property to be returned to community use.

The group has now gained wider community support for this vision. However, as it is not a constituted body, it cannot transact in its own right. To overcome this, the group has engaged the well-established and highly regarded Tailem Bend Community Centre (TBCC) to explore potential ownership or lease arrangements for all or part of the Wadmore Precinct.

While some may associate TBCC solely with Tailem Bend, it is important to note that the organisation now delivers Government–funded services across 14 district council areas, in addition to our own Coorong District Council. Collectively, these 15 councils represent a huge geographical area of South Australia. To reflect this expanded reach, TBCC has created a dedicated division—Community Transport South Australia (CTSA) Riverland, Murray Mallee, Limestone Coast (RMC) —which highlights its scale, professionalism, and success.

Discussions between the various parties are expected to commence shortly. It is hoped that further positive developments will be available to share with the community in the near future. Should an agreement be reached, the operation and funding of the site will be driven by the commitment and efforts of local Meningie residents.

Comments or questions: [email protected]

15/07/2024

18 months on from our last post, and only now are efforts being made to uplift an encumbrance that restricts the use severely.
While it holds, it cannot be used as the community have suggested, nor would a renter or an investor be interested. This encumbrance was meant to have been removed about five years ago. The delay is depriving the community of at least one of these benefits: use, rent or rates.

13/12/2022

Updates on the Centre.

The Meningie Area Community Centre working group has continued working in the background, meeting monthly, moving towards putting a proposal to Coorong District Council who have 'care and control' of the property of interest, Lots 78 and 78A Princes Highway, Meningie.

Building condition assessment reports have been long awaited, and were held over until a new Council was elected. These are now due to be presented to Council at their next meeting in the Tailem Bend chambers, from 5 pm, Tuesday 20th December, 2022. As always these sittings are open to the public, so we encourage all those interested to attend the public gallery, or watch the session remotely on Youtube.

At the last working group meeting, it was decided to meet with the Mayor in order to help progress matters. Arrangements are under way.

Once MACC receives new Council consent to present a proposal, work on that will commence. In the meanwhile, the working group will continue to work in the background towards obtaining that consent.

23/08/2022

Here is a brief update from the announced meeting of volunteers and interested persons on Saturday, 20th August, 2022.

The Working Group, to become a future committee, will focus on the provision of a facility, expected to be at 78 and 78A Princes Highway with Wadmore House.
This will be for the provision of services and perhaps goods, for the betterment of the whole area’s community. It is not focused on the delivery of any services because other stakeholders, tenants and users will be encouraged to do so.

The office-bearers in the committee to be approved within the Tailem Bend Community Centre structure were duly elected. The roles of Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer were filled by Kevin Bawden, Monica Verran, Tracey Fox and Miriam Smith respectively.
The committee members without portfolios are Ireen Wong, Jo Orr, Tim Overett, Steven Hughes and Alex Szabo.

This working group will meet again shortly to prepare for the time when it should be empowered to transact. One of the first transactions will be to obtain an arrangement with the Coorong District Council for the use of the precinct.

Once this is in place, there should be many exciting opportunities for volunteers and other not-for-profit organisations to become involved in ways to make the precinct a vibrant attraction in the town.

31/07/2022

31/07/2022

Lion's Club Meningie and Districts
Delivering the sausage sizzle gold until 2pm

31/07/2022

Lions Club
Sausage sizzle $3
Cold drinks $3