Wingham Memorial Town Hall is a heritage-listed town hall at 52 Farquhar Street, Wingham, Mid-Coast Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by James T. Chambers and built from 1922 to 1924. It is also known as Wingham Town Hall and Wingham Council Chambers. The property is owned by Mid-Coast Council. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 8 April 2016.
History Aboriginal land At the time of European settlement the Manning Valley was peopled by the Biripi people, who occupied the greater part of the Manning Valley, extending north from Blackhead to the Hastings Valley and the Worimi tribe, who occupied the area from Blackhead south to the Hunter River and west to near Barrington Tops.Smith, 2006, 17 It is understood that Aboriginal people have been caring for this land for at least 20,000 years.
Indigenous lifestyles here would have been typical of coastal eastern Australia. Coastal lakes, beaches and estuaries backed by wooded country of various kinds provided rich and varied source of food and supported a high population. John Oxley wrote in 1829: 'The natives are extremely numerous along this part of the coast; these extensive lakes, which abound with fish, being extremely favourable to their easy subsistence; large troops of them appear at the beaches while their canoes on the lakes area equally numerous. In the mornings their fires are to be observed in every direction; they evidently appear to shun us, and we wish for no further acquaintance'
Population numbers decreased rapidly with European colonisation. Contact with cedar cutters in the early nineteenth century would have intruded harshly into the Aboriginal way of life. The depletion of Aboriginal food sources resulted in hostilities. Massacres of indigenous people and the poisoning of their food and waterholes was widespread throughout much of Australia during the nineteenth century. European diseases also took a heavy toll. By the late nineteenth century the traditional way of life was dislodged and many Aboriginal people were dependent on white employment or gathered into missions, which were in operation at Purfleet, Forster and Karuah during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Smith, 2006, 17-18
Despite this history of displacement Aboriginal soldiers from the district participated in both world wars and the latter enlistments are commemorated in the Honour Rolls at the Wingham Memorial Town Hall. Given the attitudes prevailing at the time and legislative proscription, Aboriginal men who sought to enlist in World War I often presented at recruiting offices far from their place of residence where their ethnicity was not known, so they could be accepted simply as someone "of dark complexion". Perhaps because of this, the World War I indigenous servicemen of the Wingham area are not known to be included on the Honour Rolls as they did not enlist locally. However, by the time of World War II, attitudes had changed and local Aboriginal servicemen are included on the Rolls.
Colonisation The first European explorer to cross the Manning River was John Oxley who first visited the area in 1818. In 1829 the Manning River defined the northern boundary of the vast area of land from Newcastle to Taree which had been granted to the Australian Agricultural Company and the northern limit of settlement in the colony of NSW. Cedar cutters moved into the area around this time. The first official land grant of 1037 hectares was made to William Wynter who settled in the district in 1831. The modern township of Taree stands on this land. It was Wynter who gave his family home the name Tarree and subsequently named a schooner "Tarree". The schooner was used for shipping cedar to Sydney and ports to the south of Taree.('Travel - Taree' The Age 16/8/2007)
Wingham was chosen as a location for the government settlement as it was the furthest inland navigable place on the Manning River. Named after Wingham in Kent, England, it was proclaimed a village in 1844 but allotments were not made until 1854, the same year that Henry Flett laid out Taree as a private settlement. In the meantime, Tinonee had also been established as a government settlement and in 1866 had a population of 100, compared to 90 at Wingham and 150 at Taree. By 1909, Wingham had 285 houses and a population of 900, while Taree 269 houses and a population of 1300.
Wingham was proclaimed a municipality in 1889. In 1981 the municipalities of Wingham and Taree were merged with each other and the greater part of Manning Shire to form the City of Greater Taree.Wikipedia, "Wingham NSW", downloaded 29/5/15 Part of Manning Shire Council was also incorporated into Great Lakes Council. On 12 May 2016, the City of Greater Taree was amalgamated into Mid-Coast Council, together with Great Lakes Council and Gloucester Shire.
War service in the Manning valley Australians served overseas in several British Empire wars during the nineteenth century including the Boxer Rebellion, the Sudan War and the Boer War. However it was Australia's experience of World War I between 1914 and 1918 which most profoundly affected Australian identity and self-image. Like most of Australia, a large proportion of Manning Valley's young men signed up to fight for King and Empire following the declaration of war on 4 August 1914. Newspaper editorials and readers' contributions in the form of letters and poems called the Manning's young men to support the cause, parades were held, patriotic associations formed and fund-raising appeals were received enthusiastically. The "North Coasters", or "Boomerangs" as they were sometimes called, were given a civic welcome when they passed through the Manning Valley in February 1916 on their way from Grafton to Maitland.Smith, 2006, p73
A large proportion of these young men who went off to fight in Europe and the Middle East never came home, and of those who returned an even larger proportion were seriously injured in mind and / or body. As the Australian War Memorial website explains: 'For Australia, as for many nations, the First World War remains the most costly conflict in terms of deaths and casualties. From a population of fewer than five million, 416,809 men enlisted, of which over 60,000 were killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner.'
Following World War I war memorials were erected throughout Australia as an expression of grief for those lost and gratitude to those who served. These memorials were not a short lived emotion but an enduring expression of respect which remain prominent throughout the Australian built environment. Some memorials took years to eventuate as communities organised themselves, raised funds and debated what to build. Community halls were a popular form of memorial and communities would often rally to build a school of arts building as a memorial while some with existing halls frequently added commemorative plaques bearing a roll of honour. In the Manning Valley the Wingham Memorial Town Hall was opened in 1923 and the Taree War Memorial in 1925.Smith, 2006, p73-74
Wingham Memorial Town Hall This lot of land in Wingham had been dedicated as a "Hall Site" in 14 November 1884, even before the municipality was declared in 1889. However the land lay fallow for many years.
The community of Wingham initiated the idea of building a memorial hall during World War I and made significant contributions to the original fund raising. The money raised was then passed on to the Returned Soldiers, Soldiers' and Airmen's Imperial League (RSSL) to administer further fund raising activities and develop the plan. In order to finalise the project and ensure its long-term future, it was proposed that the memorial hall be combined with the function of town hall and municipal offices. Wingham Municipal Council took over the project and obtained an additional loan of 4,000 pounds so that the hall would also accommodate municipal offices and council chambers
Mr S. H. Brewer was appointed the foreman of works alongside the architect, James Thomson Chambers, and builder, F. C. Sweeney. Mr Dudgeon, a monumental mason from Taree, supplied the foundation stone free of charge. The Honour Rolls were executed by monumental mason, A. Siddall. In a self-published architectural history about her father's career, Heather Chambers discussed the construction of the Wingham Memorial Town Hall: 'Chambers used local product wherever possible. The first question raised in the erecting of the building was how to procure suitable clay for the making of bricks. This in fact was done locally, and the bricks were made of clay from a local quarry on Cedar Party Creek. These bricks were made by A. Tufrey at the rate of £27s 6d per 1,000. The water to the hall for the building project was provided by four 1,000 gallon tanks, the water to be drawn from the roof of the adjoining Presbyterian Church. Gravel from the Manning River at Wingham was used in the cement for the foundations, and the mortar used in the brickwork was coloured by the sand also obtained from the nearby river. The timber for both the exterior and interior of the building was procured from the local sawmills at Comboyne and Killabakh, of black butt and white mahogany, and Chambers donated £25 worth of timber from his mill for the building of the hall. The use of local product and tradesmen were hallmarks of the Arts and Crafts movement.'Chambers, 2006, pp44-45
The foundation stone was dedicated by Charles Rosenthal (1975-1954), a popular major-general who had commanded soldiers through most of the World War I theatres of war (and was wounded four times), also an architect, musician and NSW politician; he may have been a part-model for the authoritarian ex-soldiers' leader Benjamin Cooley in D. H. Lawrence's novel, Kangaroo.London, 1923Hill, 1988 The Wingham Memorial Town Hall was officially opened on 2 April 1924. The Mayor's speech described the memorial hall as a monument and talked about how the history of a country is written in its monuments. He also stated that the hall, although owned by the Council, was the soldiers' hall and would be available for free use by any soldier for their direct benefit of any dependent of the fallen. The honour rolls, located in the vestibule of the hall, were also unveiled on that day. Anzac Day memorial services for the district continue to be held here and a new low-rise memorial wall was constructed 2011 near the entrance vestibule to contribute to this civic function.
Following the opening, a garden plan was submitted and a brick fence constructed around the Queen and Farquhar Street boundaries. Also at this time a clock was paid for by the ladies of Wingham and subsequently mounted in the clock tower.
Wingham Council had its offices in the building and held its Council meetings here until 1981, when the Municipality of Wingham was amalgamated with Taree Municipality and part of the Manning Shire and the building ceased to be used for many civic functions. The new Council, Greater Taree City Council, continued to use the offices at the Town Hall until 1985.
The Wingham Memorial Town Hall also has played an important role as a community hall and meeting place, having been in frequent use for large social and cultural gatherings such as dances, wedding receptions, meetings and even funerals. In past years community halls functioned in broader educational and cultural roles than today, often serving as literary institutes and schools of arts before the introduction of council-administered libraries or when travel to the main centres was time-consuming or difficult.Smith, 2006, p74