Eumundi Voice - Issue 96, 27 July 2024

HISTORY

The history of Cooloolabin Hall

Cooloolabin lies just behind Yandina, and from Point Glorious views extend to the Pacific Ocean across Double Island Point to the Glasshouse Mountains. On a hot day the air is always cooler than on the coast with visitors impressed by the heavily timbered forest now known as Mapleton National Park and the dam.

Cooloolabin is from Aboriginal words meaning 'place of native bears' and there is evidence of use by First Nations people.

The centrepiece of this locality is Cooloolabin Hall which was once known as the School of Arts and officially opened in January 1917. It is run by Cooloolabin Hall Association Incorporated (CHAI) and is 107 years young this year.

The Fraser family were the first settlers and gave land for the hall and a tennis court. Other early settlers who worked to establish the hall included the Ivins, Grigor, Kennison, Humphreys, Hillier, Love, Smith, McBaron, Drummond, Morrison and Allendorf families. Subscriptions funded a lending library and a piano and accordion for dances and social occasions.

Some of the first groups to use the hall were church groups. Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists and the Salvation Army took one Sunday each month, generally arriving by horse. A rifle club and farmers’ groups met there. Timber getting, dairying and the growing of bananas and citrus were early industries.

The Cooloolabin State School functioned as a one-teacher school from 1915-1962 after which the children were taken by bus to nearby schools. By 1919 a Lawn Tennis Club was established in an idyllic setting where families gathered to play tennis on Saturday afternoon followed by a basket tea and a dance ‘till all hours’ in the hall. By the 1920s ‘picture man’ Mr Moskyn travelled to the hall once a month to show silent films using his own portable projector.

In February 1954 one of the worst cyclones to strike the Sunshine Coast demolished the hall. Community working bees and donations rebuilt the hall using salvaged timbers. It re-opened at a Grand Ball on 13 August 1955. In the 50s and 60s catering for social functions meant hearty suppers of sandwiches and cakes. The hall had a reputation for good dances on an excellent floor.

The Image Flat-Cooloolabin Fire Brigade and the community have supported modernisation of the hall and it continues to provide a gathering place. Renovated over the last few years the hall offers a modern kitchen, indoor shower and toilet and large water tanks. There is a strong hall committee from a very supportive community.

Excerpt from the recently released book Cooloolabin, Gem of the Hinterland by Audienne Blyth and Elaine Ogilvie for sale at $25 per copy, phone 0409 493 305.