The building of the Town Hall gave the then Deniliquin Municipal Council a new location to conduct meetings, other than the Masonic Lodge.
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This included the regular fortnightly meetings as well as any special meetings.
Monday, December 6, 1876 was the first meeting of council held in the Town Hall.
The venue also provided a polling booth for the referendums on the Commonwealth Constitution Bill in 1898 and 1899.
A decision was made in December 1903, announcing that voting for the federal election would be held at the court house as it was much larger.
Prior to the referendum in 1899 a meeting was held in the hall encouraging every person eligible to vote in support of federation.
From 1914 to 1918 the hall was a registration site for recruits enlisting for World War I.
The handwritten register shows the first recruits on September 18, 1914 were Harold John Priest, George Wilson, Frank Hindley, Stanley Evans, and Stanley Coe.
Rick Stafford was the last recruit recorded on November 5, 1918 (Peppin Heritage Collection).
The hiring of the hall was part of the council’s original plan to help repay the loan for the building.
The total cost of construction was £2464.
The addition of a large hall to the rear of the building allowed for more social functions and theatrical entertainments, both professional and amateur.
It provided a place for a variety of local organisations to hold meetings.
The Deniliquin Hospital and the Hospital Auxiliary held their regular meetings there for many years.
Other organisations included the Deniliquin Town Band, Women's League and Deniliquin Railway League, and the Town Hall accommodated the fire brigade pump and equipment during the brigade’s turbulent early years.
Community groups were also able to make use of the hall for their meetings and charity fundraisers.
In its life the town hall has seen spelling bees, fetes, dances, balls, lectures, political meetings, theatrics, dignitaries, protests, banquets, ballet and school concerts, flower shows, queen competitions, and more.
The flower shows were particularly popular throughout Deniliquin's history, and there are detailed newspaper reports from the 1890s.
Other notable events in those early years included the March 25, 1903 farewell to Rev and Mrs Harding, which included an address from the Chinese class and a performance by a Chinese band who had travelled from Melbourne at their own expense.
In July 1929 local church leaders called a public meeting in the Town Hall with the view to establish a Baden Powell Boy Scouts and Wolf Cubs open denomination troop.
It was hoped that such an organisation would help develop the moral fibre of the local youths.
On August 23, 1907 the mayor convened a meeting in the hall at the request of residents to protest against the federal members increasing their salaries to £600.
A resolution was unanimously carried that the mayor convey to the Govenor General the protest.
In 1915 the Town Hall hosted a Children's Bazaar, held to benefit the Mayor's Fund in aid of the Belgian Refugees.
The hall’s interior was decorated to resemble a summer house with real and artificial flowers and flags of the Allies.
This was quite a feat in the midst of a drought.
School children were let out of school early to spend their 'browns' and 'thrummers’, especially on sweets.
After an outdoor performance by the Town Band in the evening, the bazaar continued with raffles, auctions, a 'spinning Jenny', refreshments, sweets, art gallery, hoop-la, fish pond and more.
The bazaar was continued on the following evening due to its success.
Dramatics were popular as fundraisers too, and the hall provided a venue to showcase many performances from local thespian groups.
Travelling performers and entertainments were particularly important before television and the internet entered homes, and also used the venue.
At a council meeting in 1889, the tariff for the use of the Town Hall by strolling and amateur companies was reduced.
On July 14, 1877 Simonsen English and Italian Opera Company with 45 performers entertained Deniliquin over four nights.
In 1884 Scottish athlete Donald Dinnie gave an exhibition in feats of strength, and on November 15, 1907 Jack Mackay's Waxworks and Tivoli came to town.
The visit of the Bachelor's Panorama Company proved disastrous on an extremely hot Friday in the December of 1878.
One of the hall's kerosene lamps, being used to supplement the company's footlights, exploded during the set up for the evening presentation.
Fire quickly spread to the stage curtains and backdrop, the panoramas painted on canvas rolls were saved and the fire engine got out.
Within ten minutes the pump was drawing water from the lagoon to fight the fire.
The fire was contained within the hour and the council chambers unaffected.
The hall's ceiling, roof, floor, and plaster walls were greatly damaged.
Unfortunately the company's equipment, estimated at £1000, was uninsured.
The Town Hall itself was under insurance for approximately £3500 and the damage was estimated to be half that amount.
The Deniliquin Amateur Company also lost property valued at about £50.
On a happier note, a surviving dance card from Friday, June 26 1914, printed by the Pastoral Times at the time, gives us a glimpse of that night.
Twenty dances are listed, with supper occurring after number 12 - the Two Step.
Prior to restoration works commencing on the hall, it was utilised by South West Music for limited lunchtime performances.
The re-opening of the newly renovated Town Hall in 2023 continued the tradition of live entertainment by presenting four performances of Finucane & Smith's travelling show Dance Hall.