Muckadilla bands together for Christmas celebration

The town hall is the heart of the community in Muckadilla, and was where its 100 residents celebrated Christmas together.

Muckadilla Community Association committee: Shannon Crocker, April Loughnan, Glenda Hacker, Donna Sutton and Susan Jackson.

THIS year has been a tough one for the small community of Muckadilla: they lost their pub and said goodbye to their beloved publicans, and the many farming families of the district are continuing to face the harsh drought.

But none of it has stopped the hundred-strong Muckadilla Community Association from lifting everyone’s spirits, and on Saturday they came together at the Muckadilla Hall for the town Christmas party where, along with their neighbours from Amby, residents took a chance to enjoy the festive season – and a special visit from Santa.

“We are so lucky because obviously we do have the hall here, and we have a great community association,” Muckadilla Community Association president Shannon Crocker said.

“So being able to have a Christmas party, and bring everyone together is really special.”

Far from sitting idle, the little hall has become the heart of Muckadilla, serving as a social hub, yoga studio, art classroom, gun clubhouse and more.

It has kept the small town moving, and young families have stayed in the district thanks to the strong bond of community.

The community of Muckadilla gathered for their annual Christmas party at the local hall. Since losing the pub, the hall has been the centre of all social activities in town.

“We have monthly barbecues which we run here, as well as lots of different workshops, and the gun club run their shoots from here,” Mrs Crocker said.

“We also run a community playgroup, and often get a lot of Roma families who come out for that too.

“For so long there hasn’t been too many young families around, but in recent years we have had more people moving to the area, which has been wonderful.”

The community also welcomed back former publicans John and Sue McIntosh, who travelled from the Gold Coast to see their long-time friends.

“This is sort of our farewell from Muckadilla,” Mrs McIntosh said.

“We will come back when the new owners re-open the pub, but we really just wanted to see everyone.

“We love the community here – everyone has tried to look out for us, and not one of them didn’t try to help, which was just beautiful.”

New owners are rebuilding the local pub, and have already fixed the swimming pool for the local community; they expect to properly open in 2020.

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