THE Harrietville community celebrated the completion of the hall upgrade project last Saturday with stunning autumn weather and colour turning out.

About 50 locals enjoyed the sunshine and sausages along side representatives from funding organisations including Emergency Recovery Victoria, Bright Community Bank and Alpine Shire Council.

The upgrades include a new meeting room, new disabled amenities, a covered outdoor space addressing the Ovens River, new entry and a refurbished kitchen.

The new and upgraded spaces provide more options for community activities and events and better engage the hall with the Ovens River and the town streetscape.

"It's taken a long time to get to this stage," chair of the Harrietville Hall committee, Simon Jones said.

"The main thing that kept us all committed to the project is the fact we knew the refurbishments would be beneficial to the whole community."

The project was identified as a priority by the Harrietville community following the 2012-13 Bushfire event.

The hall committee initially received a grant from the Harrietville Community Forum to develop a concept plan for upgrading the hall to strengthen community resilience and preparedness for emergency situations.

The committee worked with architect Leigh Rizzato of JWP Architects to develop the concept plan which was finalised in 2017.

The hall committee then commenced fundraising and seeking grants to realise the communities vision for upgrading the hall including running movie nights and Fitski, a fun pre-winter fitness program.

While these fundraising activities were a lot of fun and brought the community together they would not generate the funds necessary to deliver the vision for the upgrades.

However in 2020 the hall committee was successful in receiving a grant through the Local Economic Recovery program administered by Emergency Recovery Victoria, (formerly Bushfire Recovery Victoria).

Unfortunately the project was set back by the impacts of covid including substantial construction cost increases.

While additional funding was to assist with rescoping the project, tender pricing for the amended scope of works was still too high for the project to proceed.

Recognising the plight of the committee, the Bright Community Bank stepped in to help with a grant and also assist the hall committee to secure an additional $50,000 grant from the Community Enterprise Foundation.

The combined funding was adequate for the committee engage local builder Excelsior Masterbuilders, who also contributed in kind to the project, to deliver the upgrade works.

A successful project outcome has been achieved through the financial support provided by project sponsors and the hard work and commitment of the local Harrietville community, Excelsior Masterbuilders, Ben Carton Electrical and Apex Plumbing.

The Harrietville community thanks the Victorian Government, Bright Community Bank, the Community Enterprise Foundation and the Alpine Shire Council for their financial support for this project.

The Harrietville Hall is open for bookings with current activities including Yoga on Wednesday evening and Fitski on Saturday mornings until the turns are real.

For bookings email: harrietvillhallbookings@gmail.com.