Before this building there stood on this land a much smaller Hall. It was originally a School Of Arts (a lady in her 50s remembers her mother borrowing books from the old building).
The Newcastle Morning Herald reported on January 17th, 1923. ‘The Directors of the Wallarah Coal Co. have promised to erect a soldier’s memorial hall and School of Arts combined which will be a credit to the town and the citizens are waiting the fulfilment of this promise’
This building has had 3 or 4 extensions or makeovers before it reached its present proportions.
At one stage the RSL Hall was a licensed club and had a number of poker machines. The RSL Club had to give up its poker machines as there were no inside toilets (a condition of that time). The RSL Club was offered an interest free loan of 10,000 pounds to make these improvements but members thought that it was too big a gamble so patronage transferred to the Bowling Club over the road. There were many 21st birthdays, weddings, fashion parades and ‘old time’ dancers held at the hall before it was finally sold. Bingo was a regular weekly event but was postponed for some time until the bird and lice problem was sorted out and the pest man made a successful cleanup. Even the cast and crew from Summer City were accommodated in the hall while making the movie.
Because of falling membership the RSL joined forces with the Bowling Club and sold the building to be used as a private residence to Sue and Steve Chandler.
They bought the building for around $100000 and later sold the old hall for $500000 to Margaret and Ian Richardson who use it as a family weekender and open it as a venue for public events such as the Art Show.
The Richardsons opted for a “life on the road” and sold.
One of the current owners is a very talented painter, specialising in botanical specimens so the flora of Catherine Hill Bay are being recorded in her work.