Q150 Shed: Forgotten piece of QLD cultural history to be relocated to Brisbane for Wynnum Fringe as the Augathella Spiegeltent

A forgotten piece of Queensland’s cultural history will be revived and relocated to a Brisbane suburb in a response to the national live entertainment crisis.

The Augathella Spiegeltent is regarded as Australia’s first Spiegeltent of its kind. Photo: Supplied

A forgotten piece of Queensland’s cultural history will be revived and relocated to Brisbane in a response to the national live entertainment crisis.

A community crowd fund was started by Bayside arts festival Wynnum Fringe to relocate and restore a run-down Spiegeltent from the regional Maranoa town of Augathella.

The Augathella Spiegeltent was originally commissioned in 2008 by the Queensland Government as part of Queensland’s 150th anniversary celebrations and was known as the Q150 shed.

The Q150 Shed will stop at The Strand from June 18 to 20, filled with displays, music and dancing to celebrate Queensland's 150th birthday. the Shed in Mount Isa.

One of the highlights during the birthday the corrugated-iron shed was reminiscent of the iconic Australian shearing shed and modelled on the idea of the popular Spiegeltent, a portable house of music, dancing and entertainment.

The Q150 Shed stopped at The Strand in 2009, filled with displays, music and dancing to celebrate Queensland's 150th birthday. Inside the shed.

Uniquely Queensland in design, blending traditional 19th century Belgian construction techniques with a quintessential Australian shearing shed aesthetic, The Augathella Spiegeltent was regarded as Australia’s first of its kind.

The crowd fund campaign seeks to raise $500,000 to use the shed as a new semipermanent performance venue for the Brisbane region and other parts of Australia.

Wynnum Fringe Festival founder Tom Oliver said the campaign was an urgent response to the national live entertainment crisis which has seen several major festival cancellations and high-profile venue closures over the past year.

“This project will provide a much-needed platform to nurture emerging talent, bring communities together, increase capacity-building across the sector and create year-round jobs for creative workers,” he said.

“It not only revitalises a forgotten gem in Queensland’s cultural history but gives the Brisbane region a new live performance venue of similar capacity to the recently shuttered The Zoo.”

A groundbreaking community crowdfund is underway to revive a forgotten piece of Queensland’s cultural history and in just two weeks an epic 800km journey will begin. Photo: Supplied

As of Wednesday morning $89,000 had been raised in approximately two weeks and the campaign was on track to achieve a milestone $100k, the amount needed to pack it up and relocate it to Wynnum.

Mr Oliver and his team start the 800 kilometre journey from Augathella to Brisbane on Wednesday July 3, after an official Presentation of the Keys at 5pm.

It will take the team of five people, five days to deconstruct the Spiegeltent in Augathella, before the actual trip east on two semis, and its reconstruction.

Designed by world famous fourth-generation Belgian tent-building family The Klessens the shed toured across the state before settling in Augathella, nine-hours’ drive West of Brisbane.

The venue was a community function and entertainment centre until it fell into disrepair many years ago and now deemed not usable by The Murweh Shire Council.

Mr Shaun Radnedge, Mayor of Murweh Shire Council, enthusiastically endorsed the ambitious crowd-funding project.

“We are extremely proud to partner with Wynnum Fringe to revitalise and restore this great asset, to honour Queensland’s history and immortalise one of our great regional towns,” he said.