Gympie council to increase Civic Centre rebuild to $10m

As the controversial shuttering of Gympie’s main arts hub drags on after almost three years, new plans to transform the building are expected to be a big win for the community.

Gympie Regional Council (CEO Robert Jennings inset) wants to increase the budget for work at the Civic Centre to $10m, thereby allowing them to carry out significant upgrades to the building which has now been controversially shut for more than two years.

They say every cloud has a silver lining, and now Gympie Regional Council is hoping to find something similar on the edges of black mould.

The council is hoping to transform the Civic Centre’s controversial, years-long shutdown into a win for the community with plans to inject another $6million into the arts hub.

If approved, it would turn what was once a $1.64m repair job into a $10m overhaul.

This new bill would be spread across multiple years, with the bulk of it earmarked for the 2023-24 budget and hinging on the council’s ability to snag funding from the state government’s Disaster Ready Fund.

If successful the fund would throw $3m into the mix, with the council matching that amount from its own coffers.

The cost of fixing the building has now blown out to $2.81m, and a staff report to be tabled to the council on Wednesday, March 22, says $328,000 is still needed on top of this after more problems were found.

The Gympie civic Centre has been shut since late 2020.

The report says the building upgrades are not critical, but doing them now would avoid having to shut the centre for a prolonged period again within the next decade.

The upgrades would include improvements to the theatres and its acoustics, new walls around the orchestra pit, a new deck from Prospector’s Hall onto the Fern St Park, a new box office, a new ceiling in the Fossicker’s Room, upgrading all lighting to dimmable LEDs, and a new laundry room and practice room.

The Civic Centre has been closed since mid-2020, a situation which has become a constant thorn in the council’s side.

It was closed for repairs before being temporarily co-opted by the state government to serve as a vaccination hub during the Covid pandemic.

The Civic Centre has been a sore point for the Gympie council since its 2020 closure, with public backlash not only over the delay in reopening but the decision to remove a wooden statue from the foyer which was reportedly infested with mould following the floods.

Original plans to renovate the building were scrapped after multiple safety defects were found.

These new plans were then put on hold after the February 2022 flood disasters caused a mould infestation in the building.

The report says this was a “category three black water event” and a hygienist inspection in April 2022 found the venue was “unsafe for habitation”.

In January 2023, the council announced the centre would stay shut until at least the end of the year.

It came up against further backlash following the removal of a wooden statue of a miner which had adorned the foyer for years.

Acting CEO Dave Lewis said at the time the statue had become a “biohazard” as a result of the mould infestation and its removal was the only option.

Originally published as Gympie council to increase Civic Centre rebuild to $10m