A century and a half for Kiama

As noted in the Freemason of March 2022, Lodge Kiama had planned to celebrate its 150 years of existence in July 2021.

During the celebrations, eventually held in July 2022, visitors were able to look into the past through a display of photographs and information in the Kiama Masonic Hall which has an interesting history of its own.

The hall was built by the Sons and Daughters of Temperance Society between 1876 and 1878 and was for many years the largest public meeting place in the area. The Freemasons bought the hall from the Temperance Society in 1908 and improved it by adding stained glass windows, removing the gallery, and converting the former stage into a supper room.

Minutes dated 4 February 1909 record that a motion was passed that from then on the lodge would meet in their new Masonic Hall instead of the Church of England Sunday School. Also passed was a payment of £5 for 20 chairs at five shillings each to VW Bro C Stephenson, of whom more below.

In 1973 a loan was obtained from the Masonic Temples Fund to add a hall to the original building to create the Kiama Masonic Temple that we know today. It was dedicated by then Grand Master MW Bro V C N Blight on 28 February 1976 and the first debutante ball was held soon after

Another insight into the way Lodge Kiama, and Freemasonry in general, plays its part in the community comes from an event a week after that first meeting of Lodge Kiama in their new Kiama Temple.

Just seven days after this first meeting, the most senior Freemason of the lodge was dead. VW Bro Captain Charles Moore Stevenson died in Sydney and his coffin was conveyed by train to Kiama the following day. VW Bro Stevenson was a member of the 2nd Kiama Militia, formed from the Kiama Rifle Club, and his coffin was carried by members of VW Bro Stevenson’s regiment to the Lodge for a Lodge of Sorrow, held in the presence of 26 members of Lodge Kiama and 21 visitors including the Grand Secretary. Afterwards the hearse proceeded to Kiama cemetery in a procession of brethren and members of the regiment which numbered over 1,000 people, a mile long.

It is of interest to note the names of members of the Lodge at the time are today well-known families still In Kiama: Marks, Grey, Noble, Knight and Fraser.

Lodge Kiama celebrated an unbroken line of 1,574 meetings in Kiama before being interrupted by Covid.

Eastern Suburbs lodges