Gympie council speaks after Facebook star calls for Civic Centre to reopen

The future of the city’s Civic Centre remains in limbo, with the council speaking on the controversial closure following criticism of the prolonged shutdown soon to enter its fourth year. Vote in the poll:

Gympie’s Civic Centre’s prolonged closure will linger into 2025 with the council (CEO Robert Jennings inset) saying work to finish repairs at the facility will not start until early in the new year.

Gympie’s Civic Centre’s prolonged closure will linger into 2025 with the council saying work to finish repairs at the facility will not start until early in the new year.

In a statement Tuesday, a Gympie Regional Council spokeswoman said the organisation was committed to ensuring the venue “remains safe and fit for purpose for the long-term needs of the region”.

The comments follow renewed questions over the centre’s reopening after it was shut in 2020.

Social media historian and businessman Mal Dodt pleaded for the centre to reopen several days earlier amid reports a prominent comedian refused to perform in the city because the venue offered was not up to scratch.

In a recent post on his celebrated ‘Gympie – The Real Treasure is the Town’ Facebook page which has 20,000 followers, Mr Dodt urged its reopening saying “sadly (the centre) still most likely looks the same” as it did one year ago.

The post was accompanied by a series of photos Mr Dodt took when members of the media were invited to tour the building during its renovations.

“Our town needs this venue to be reopened so entertainment will return to our city,” Mr Dodt said in the Wednesday post, where he tagged media and politicians.

It is understood at least one prominent stand-up comedian decided to skip a show in Gympie as he did not want to perform on the basketball court at the Showgrounds.

Speaking on Friday, Mr Dodt said he wanted to push for an answer as to when the centre would re-open.

“Twelve months on and nothing has happened,” he said.

The Civic Centre was initially closed in early 2020 ahead of planned restoration work, before Covid restrictions forced entertainment venues to shut their doors indefinitely.

Gympie influencer Mal Dodt (inset) is pleading for Civic Centre to reopen after four years.

It was then co-opted by the state government to serve as a vaccination hub from July 2021 to mid 2022.

Plans to finish the renovations and reopen if after Queensland Health vacated were scuttled by the 2022 record-level floods.

The base of the building, which served as an emergency evacuation centre, was inundated, leading to a black mould infestation which forced its ongoing closure for safety and repair work.

However, there were plans to hopefully have it open in December 2022.

That date was then pushed back to late 2023, and then 2024 when it was declared the building was “mould free”.

Plans to reopen the Civic Centre after Queensland Health stopped using it as a vaccination hub were scuttled in 2022 by the floods, which caused extensive damage to building and an outbreak of mould.

There remains no clear date for when its doors will reopen.

The council spokeswoman said Tuesday the planned July 2023 reopening was halted when further storm damage “became evident” during the initial emergency repairs and mould removal.

“There was additional work needed as a result of mould damage, combined with the building’s age and evolving construction standard,” the spokeswoman said.

Despite renovation and repair work on the Civic Centre in late 2023, one year on there remains no clear date as to when the building will reopen. Photo: Christine Schindler

“The remaining work includes both essential repairs and upgrades aimed at modernising the building.

“Key areas of focus are improving accessibility, fire safety, air conditioning, acoustics, and audiovisual capabilities.

“Once the tender is awarded and a firm timeline established with the successful contractor on board, Council will be able to provide a completion date.”

She said the council was waiting for an insurance claim for the storm damage to be finalised, and was seeking funding help from the state government.

There was $6.19m set aside in the council’s 2024-25 budget for the centre’s repairs.

Mr Dodt said the region needed the centre to be reopened as it was missing out on shows, plays, music, and a whole host of things the city needed to be “a destination” now the Bypass was finally open.

“It’s part of Gympie’s infrastructure that we’ve lost,” Mr Dodt said.