The Tetoora Road Community Centre will celebrate its centenary next month.
The centenary celebrations will include a "back-to" and family fun day on October 15 and 16 respectively.
The Tetoora Road Public Hall was completed in September 1922, and the Wizard Lighting System had been installed. The hall was opened by Sir John Mackey MLA, on Monday, September 18, 1922.
The committee cannot find a report of the festivities but a notice in the West Gippsland Gazette for September 26, 1922 has a request for the return of an oil coat and gloves lost at the opening.
The hall account book has a credit entry for the opening night of £46/12/9 so the committee assumes the 12 dozen cups and saucers hired for the night were used.
Ed Butt, in "Over the Shoulder" wrote: "The opening night was memorable. Incessant rain, squelching through muddy paddocks over creeks from our place, while many who travelled by horse power had their difficulties. One elderly couple stayed all night in the hall when their ponies refused to pull the buggy. They were near frozen (both man and beast)."
One hundred years on the Tetoora Road Community Centre committee is hoping to avoid the bad weather of the opening and opted for an October celebration.
Celebrations on October 15 and 16 will begin at 1:30pm and finish at around 5:30pm both days.
The committee is hoping people will car pool where possible as the paddock may present difficulties if it continues to be wet, after 259mm of rain in August. Volunteers to assist with car parking and all the events during both days.
The Public Record Office Victoria provided the committee with a grant to record oral histories. This project is nearing completion and will be launched at the centenary where a film of extracts will be shown.
The committee has collected some great stories - who remembers the day the rope swing at the Tetoora Road School broke with one too many kids, sliding on sacks to polish the hall floor or who master-minded the raising of the roof tie beams so that badminton could be played?
As well as a history of the early years of the hall, an on-going book of stories based around Tetoora Road is being compiled.
If anyone has a story they would like included start writing and provide to the committee on the day.
