Council & Business
30 October, 2023
Council awards Maryborough Town Hall upgrade contract
Maryborough’s historic town hall is a step closer to re-opening to public use, with a contract worth up to $650,000 awarded for electrical upgrades to be carried out in the building. At last week’s ordinary council meeting, councillors moved...
Maryborough’s historic town hall is a step closer to re-opening to public use, with a contract worth up to $650,000 awarded for electrical upgrades to be carried out in the building.
At last week’s ordinary council meeting, councillors moved unanimously to award EPM&C Pty Ltd the contract for electrical and audio visual works at the town hall to the value of $539,000 — with the CEO authorised to approve additional spend as required (up to $107,000).
The Maryborough Town Hall has been closed to the public since 2021 after safety concerns were raised regarding the building’s existing electrical infrastructure.
According to the report tabled to council, reopening the town hall has been a priority since its closure, however unsuccessful attempts to secure a contractor to carry out the electrical works in 2022 slowed the process.
The scope of works will see the main switchboard replaced as well as distribution boards, new exit and emergency lighting, upgraded lighting, an audio visual conferencing system in the council chambers and several other upgrades.
Speaking during the meeting councillor Gerard Murphy said while a great step forward, more needed to be done to prepare the hall for use by the community again.
“It was in 2021 when the hall closed because of electrical issues and after a few false starts, we’re finally getting there,” he said.
“My concern is we need to work on some other areas of the town hall as well — we need to work on how we get extra money and how we use that to get things done.
“That way, hopefully by the time this is all finished we’ll be able to get back into the space and have events utilising the whole facility and make it our prized town hall as it once was.”
Awarding the contract for upgrades at the hall follows a push by councillors to once again hold ordinary meetings in the council chambers at the hall.
Mayor Grace La Vella said additional works are planned around the town hall, which council hopes will open up additional opportunities for the community.
“To complement the project, officers are also working on a full audit of the building against the Building Code and Disability Discrimination Act and investigating Heritage Conservation elements to develop a short, medium and long-term strategy to bring the building up to contemporary standards,” she said.
“Long term, we will continue to seek funding opportunities that would see us be able to restore the town hall to its former glory. Additional funding would allow us to carry out additional upgrade works so that the hall could be more widely used and open more often.
“These additional upgrade works would include creation of a function and modernised performance space, regional conferencing facilities as well as community and creative industry spaces.
“The Maryborough Town Hall forms a central part of the full civic upgrade planned for Maryborough which will support the town to further cement its role as a regional centre, serving communities across the area in terms of access to new, high quality cultural, civic and wellbeing opportunities.”