"About 100 Years Ago by Harvey Bryce" The  Scout  Hut,  Maleny

About 100 years ago Australia was drawn into a World War.   When the war ended and our young men came home, very stressed and suffering from wounds, mustard gas poisoning etc., with no trauma counselling and little compensation.

 

With not much money and trying to resettle into normal life again, they wanted to build a returned serviceman’s club in a town.   Publican Billy Burnett gave them the beer barrel shed and the land it stood on for the first diggers Hall.

 

 Next we were hit with World War Two and when the soldiers returned home, they wanted to join the RSL, but the hall was too small.   So, with very little funds they bought a R.A.A.F. hall from Maryborough and a team dismantled the hall and bought it to Landsborough by rail and reassembled it on Burnett’s block, where it still stands majestically today.   That is the present R.S.L. Hall on the banks of Obi Creek.

 

Now the old hall was in the way and the Maleny’s then G.P. Dr Parer came to the rescue.    A motion was put forward to move it to the rear of the school of arts (community hall) for a Boy Scout hall.

 

The doctor was also the school of arts committee president and the rent was to be the maintenance of the rear portion and clean up the dirty creek, which is now a pipe under Centenary lane.

 

Unfortunately the contract was never completed by the solicitors at that time and the ownership has been shifted a couple of times since.

 

 The hall has been the home of the first Maleny, the second Maleny, and third Maleny Troupe (my troupe) with Scout Leaders Ron Outridge, Vic Waddle etc.

 

The Scouts have folded and reopened again since then and for now have a home in the guide hut in Cedar Street, Maleny which was an ex- army building.