Urana Soldiers' Memorial Hall

About

The Urana Soldiers' Memorial Hall is a heritage-listed community hall located at Anna Street, Urana, Federation Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by George Sheppard (in 1884 as the Mechanics Institute Hall) and by Sidney James Hunnings (in 1923 as the second hall and façade). The Hall was built between 1884 and 1924. It is also known as the Soldiers Hall, Mechanics Institute Hall and School of Arts Hall. The property is owned by Federation Council. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 8 April 2016.

The traditional indigenous people of Urana area are the Bangerang people. The Bangerang used the River Murray as a thoroughfare and were famous for their bark canoes. There are large middens along the Murray river, on both banks, composed of black wood-ash and burnt clay from cooking. For the Bangerang the river fulfilled a function as a major highway for communications and trade and as a major source of food. They found plentiful food, shellfish and Murray cod in the river and fruit, tubers and nuts in the adjacent country. Although they probably joined the Wiradjuri and [others] at the annual feast on bogong moths in the alpine peaks each December and January, the Bangerang were less mobile than the highland folk. The dislocation by Europeans of normal Aboriginal routines of life was increasingly severe from the 1840s onwards.

After initial explorations by Hume and Hovell in 1824, the first settler in the Albury area was Charles Ebden who started working land on both sides of the Murray in 1835. By 1838 the major route south from Gundagai to Port Phillip was established along the line of the later Hume Highway through Albury. A census in 1845 counted 200 people in "Urana in the centre of Bangerang country". By 1850 all desirable water frontages on both sides of the Murray had been taken up. The rivers of the plains north of the Murray in the Urana region also had attractive frontages, though more prone to drought. In the mid-1840s, there were "settlers moving down the Lachlan, Murrumbidgee, Billabong and Murray Rivers", and more moving north from Victoria.

In the 1850s the gold-rush population created a market for beef which encouraged cattle breeding. The big stations on the flat plains were typically partitioned into paddocks and the backblocks more intensively exploited. Urana's Brookong station, which in 1850 had had one paddock covering 45,000 hectares (110,000 acres), by 1871 had twelve paddocks, each of 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres), divided by wire fences. In the 1860s cattle disease and low prices for beef led pastoralists to concentrate more on sheep, and fine Merino wool became a dominant product. With a vigorous steamboat trade on the Murray from the 1850s and a rail link to Melbourne via Echuca, the wool clip was assured of easy transport to its markets. With closer settlement in the period from 1870 onwards, grain production became increasingly important. The last quarter of the nineteenth century saw an increase in the number of pastoralists, a reduction in the general size of holdings, the increased sinking of deep wells to water backblocks and a complementary increase in the population of the service towns throughout the region.

Between 1860 and 1890 the population of the region increased by 600% and the towns took their municipal shape. Albury, the senior and always most important town, was surveyed in 1838 and gazetted in the following year. Urana developed in the mid-1860s as a crossroads on drove routes, converging from Corowa to the south, Jerilderie to the west, Narrandera to the north and Wagga Wagga to the northeast. The towns served agricultural farms and grazing properties and prospered from meeting their needs. By the mid twentieth century, irrigation channels to assist farmers on the drier lands in the west have both increased wool production and diversified cropping, although with a heavy price to pay in increasing salination around the Wakool.

The original (northern) hall in the Urana Soldier's Memorial Hall was built for the "Mechanics Institute and School of Arts" for Urana in the early 1880s in order to provide educational opportunities for working-class men. It was instigated by local citizens who raised funding by private subscription which was then matched by government funding (although there were grumbles that the government was stinting on its share by only offering 10 shillings for each pound raised instead of pound for pound ( Australian Town and Country Journal, 28/6/1884)). A meeting of subscribers held at the Urana Hotel on 28 November 1883 resolved to "instruct Mr. Sheppard, Architect, of Wagga, to prepare plans and specifications for a brick hall 70 feet (21 m) long, 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, and 15 feet (4.6 m) high".

The foundation stone for the School of Arts and Mechanics' Institute hall, Urana was laid on 27 May 1884, by Mrs. Newton, of Urana station, who was presented with a "handsome silver trowel". The cost of the building was expected to surpass A£ 1,000.

'Schools of Arts, Mechanics' Institutes and Literary Institutes were an integral part of the early fabric of Australia society. Nearly every country town had its School of Arts and many still exist under different names reflecting their continuing role as centres of community activity... Following the establishment of the first Mechanics' Institute in Hobart in 1827, the movement spread rapidly bringing wider education, culture, art and literature to communities throughout Australia... Our public libraries, adult education, and technical education all had their beginnings in the movement... Most towns and small settlements at some time had an equivalent of a School of Arts. Though some may now serve a different purpose, many of these buildings remain still providing a focal point for community activities.'

'They sought to give skilled working men education for life and work, providing lectures, classes, libraries and even museums... Most mechanics' institutes failed in their educational aims... While institute buildings have survived, sometimes as community centres or libraries, the worthy ideals of the founders – self-improvement, self-discipline, class co-operation and cultural egalitarianism – have long been forgotten.

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. Throughout Australia, a large proportion of 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 upon young men to support the cause, parades were held, patriotic associations formed and appeals for money were received enthusiastically..

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 of 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.

The foundation stone for the memorial hall was laid by Mr. Otway Falkiner, who was presented with an address of welcome and a silver trowel. There was a large assemblage at Urana to witness the laying of the foundation stone of the Urana Soldiers' Memorial Hall. The building will provide a large dancing hall, stage, dressing room, supper-room, kitchen, library, reading room, committee room, sample room, and soldiers' club room. 'It is some years since the Memorial Hall Committee began operations and with Mr. F. E. Whitehead, J.P. as the president of the committee; Mr. L. S. Chandler, as treasurer, and Mr. J. Trainor as secretary. Many difficulties were overcome.'

'The building is expected to cost 4000 pounds, of which 2500 pounds in already in hand. The hall will be built of reinforced concrete, and will be of two floors, containing a 72 ft [21.9m] by 40 ft. [12.2m] hall on the ground floor, dressing, cloak, supper looms, etc.; the second floor will be occupied by the billiard room and soldiers' club room.' ( Riverina Grazier, 13/11/1923, p1). An electric lighting plant was installed in 1925 at a cost of 560 pounds. Installation of electricity would have also made possible the use of the hall as a cinema.

The 1920s design was prepared by the shire's engineer, Sidney James Hunnings, himself an Australian army ex-serviceman (Albury and Wodonga Express, 9 November 1923 p47; NAA).

'The building is notable for its combination of two halls... the School of Arts hall built in 1884... combined with a new hall in 1923–4. The combined halls were faced with an interwar Georgian Revival style frontage. The whole frontage... is constructed of in situ poured concrete. This is an early and unusual use of concrete... It is a precursor to later use of concrete (tilt slab) as a wall construction method for large buildings.'. The National Archives service records for S.J. Hunnings show that during his time in the army he invented a "method of petrifying surfaces of aerodromes and roads", suggesting that he was interested in innovative design (NAA 'Hunnings').

The hall was officially opened on 22 May 1925: "Before a large gathering Senator General Chas. Cox officially opened the Urana Soldiers" Memorial Hall. In an inspiring address the speaker referred in glowing terms to the bravery of our soldiers and said that the Australian army was the only voluntary army in the world. That was one thing they were proud of.'

"Urana Soldiers Memorial Hall represents the large number of men that enlisted in World War I from the Urana area. The AIF project database establishes the following:

- Urana: 45 enlisted, 1 killed in action, 4 died of wounds

- Oaklands : 64 enlisted, 6 killed in action, 7 died of wounds, 3 died of diseases