Halls Creek Rural Community Hall

Reg Franklin is 84.  He’s lived in the beautiful Halls Creek area, in the North West of New South Wales for all of his life.  He’s a farmer, pretty much like everyone who lives in ‘the Creek’.  In Reg’s 84 years, he can’t remember it being so dry, for so long.  What he can remember is Santa coming, every single year, to give a present to each of the children of Halls Creek. 

It’s a long-held tradition: there’s always been a party at Halls Creek for Christmas.  Originally, it was held in the Community Hall. The children of Halls Creek would run up and down on the old floorboards, playing and squealing and upsetting the women with their trays of fruit salad and pavlova.  The men, some who rarely saw each other through the year, would discuss the price of grain and wool, and compare how much rain had fallen.  It was the coming together of a community, a time of fun, family and friendship.

While our Halls Creek Community is a strong and united family, currently we are without rain, and we are also without a hall.  …While we can’t make it rain, we can aim to build a hall. 

These days, our Halls Creek family meet on the Halls Creek Progress Association’s grounds, owned outright by the Association, of which everyone here is a member.  We pull out the old BBQ from the shed and crank it up.  Neighbours hug, shake hands and laugh.  Cheese platters and plates of homemade sweet treats are shared with gusto.  The children of Halls Creek play tips on the hard, dusty ground and jump up and down with wide smiles as Santa comes down the road in the firetruck, sirens and lights a-blazing.  Good, good times. 

Now more than ever, we need these good times, and we need them more than once a year.  

We have raised $15,000 so far, but we have a long way to go to reach our goal of $200,000.  A donation from you, no matter how much, will help us get there.  The Halls Creek Community Hall will be a shrine to honour our proud tradition of coming together, a practical place of meeting and planning and celebrating, and a legacy for the generations that will follow.  Please help us by either donating or by sharing our story… TIA x

ADDIT: 

Our names are Emma Martin and Lucy Gallagher, and we are a part of the Halls Creek family.  We are neighbours and active members of the Halls Creek Progress Association.  It was decided at an Association meeting, that we start a GoFundMe account to try to raise some cash to build our much-needed hall.  When there is enough money raised, through a combination of other fundraising , government grants and this GoFundMe account, we will be able to commence building the hall.  The hall could then be the venue for various get-togethers such as our traditional Christmas Party, regular wellbeing/exercise classes, dinners and dances, to name a few.  In this particular time of hardship, it's more important than ever for people to be socially connected, and we thank you for your support.