Badger Creek Hall, celebrating a century of community spirit

It was built in less than two days but the now Badger Creek Hall has reached a special milestone.

The Badger Creek community is getting ready to celebrate 100 years of its community hall. It was built in a day and a half and is still standing today.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but the Badger Creek Hall was close to it – and despite the prompt job, there can be no complaints about the quality of workmanship as it’s still standing strong 100 years later.

In the early 1920s, the Badger Creek community did not muck around – they had already built a church in one day in 1913 and the hall was next on their list.

It was one of those volunteer jobs earmarked for between Christmas and New Year in 1924 and the community got stuck in and built it.

They sourced the materials locally and whipped the hall up themselves in a day and a half. It was officially opened in February 1925.

For the last century, it has proudly hosted shows, dances, weddings, parties and events of all kinds and did narrowly avoid being burnt down during the 1939 fires.

Made from locally milled hardwood, weatherboard, corrugated iron and fibro, the hall’s original flooring is still in place but the timber stumps have been replaced.

In 1978 the hall was moved from its original location 400m up the road to make way for the Healesville Sanctuary expansion.

The hall’s 100th birthday will be celebrated on Saturday, February 15, from 10am with family entertainment, a bush dance, food, cake and beer.

Badger Creek hall committee president Kevin Mason said the hall was instrumental to the heritage of the area and served an important social role.

“The hall is a reflection of how a community came together and the resilience of those early settlers in achieving what they wanted by doing it themselves,” he said.

“The upcoming celebration is not all just about the hall though, it’s about our hall users and the devoted, passionate community volunteers as well who have managed and maintained it from day one until the current day, some serving members for 50 years.”