Latest News

Maren moves on

Volunteers gathered on Sunday 15 September to thank Maren Innes for her wonderful service to the Centre. Initially volunteering as a University of Canberra student, the Centre was subsequently able to... more »

Wee Jasper School celebrates 125 years

The Wee Jasper School 125th Anniversary attracted a very good crowd and considerable interest in our display which comprised six storyboards, well presented on a metal framework, with hay bales and wattle... more »

HHC receives Heritage Grant

Honorary Curator Alastair Crombie and Gillespie Collection Curator Ken Heffernan have just paid a visit to the Serbian Orthodox Church, Forrest, a Canberra treasure for its brilliant wall and ceiling murals.... more »

Annual Address - Duncan Marshall

Chair of the ACT Heritage Council Duncan Marshall gave the Centre's 2024 Annual Address on Thursday 15th August. In introducing him Allen Mawer observed that the Ministerial 'Statement of Expectations'... more »

Hall Heritage tour booklet launched

Minister Rebecca Vassarotti visited the Centre on 25 July to launch the latest in a series of Heritage Tour booklets - this one a Heritage Tour of Hall. The booklets have been funded by the ACT Government,... more »

Major History of Canberra volumes available

James McDonald has been working on his five-volume history of Canberra for the past decade. Volume I. From Antiquity to Invasion and Volume II. Colonization (1824-61) have been published and are available... more »

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Brass on the Grass

Canberra Brass celebrates their 40^th Anniversary with a FREE concert

Sunday 13^th October

A marching band of 60 members will march up Victoria Street to the school site at 1.00 pm. Brass on the Grass Concert begins at 1.30 pm. The school grounds and Heritage Centre will be open from 12 noon.

Seating provided or BYO. Refreshments for sale. Bumper raffle.

Free parking off Victoria Street opposite the school. As there is a very big event at the Showground it may be easier to enter Hall via Gladstone Street, or the top end of Victoria Street

Heritage Centre Location

The Centre is located in the former Hall Primary School, 19 Palmer Street, Hall. Parking is on Palmer Street or Hoskins Street.

Hall Heritage Centre - Normal opening hours

• Every Thursday morning, 9.00 am - 12.00 noon
• Every Sunday afternoon, 12 noon - 4.00 pm
• by appointment (email: ) or 6230 9630.

New Exhibition: The journey of Lyall Gillespie

A new exhibition about the life and work of eminent Canberra historian Lyall Gillespie will be officially opened on Sunday 14th April at 11.00 am. All welcome. There is no charge, but your donations are welcomed.

In 2015 the Hall Heritage Centre was invited to become the custodian of Lyall's lifetime collection. This exhibition draws extensively from that collection, and from items still held within the Gillespie family.

The official opening of the exhibition will be preceded immediately by the ceremonial naming of the building in which the collection is housed.

The exhibition is the main contribution of the Heritage Centre to the Canberra and Region Heritage Festival.

Explore heritage databases

Bush schools of the Canberra region

bush schools of the Canberra region locates and tells the stories of more than eighty one-teacher district bush schools and identifies nearly all of their teachers up to about 1940.

Rediscovering Ginninderra'

'Rediscovering Ginninderra' records prominent People and Places in the Ginninderra district (Belconnen plus Gungahlin) during the settlement era, illustrated by more than 400 photographs.

'From Ginin-ginin-derry to Hall'

Our main exhibition is a journey through time and space from Ginin-ginin-derry to Hall. 'Ginin-ginin-derry' was an aboriginal locality, first traversed by Europeans in the early 1820's and settled by them from around 1826, initially at 'Palmerville'. From the 1860's for half a century Ginninderra flourished, having its heyday in the 1890's and early 1900's when there was a church, school, post and telegraph office, blacksmith shop, police station, store, a nursery, and a boot-maker, Farmers Union, School of Arts, cricket club, and the large Ginninderra Estate.

A very productive agricultural area, Ginninderra supplied grain to the Araluen and Majors Creek goldfields, then wool to the Sydney markets. William Davis, then Tom Gribble, Edward Smith, Edmund Rolfe, 'Babe' Curran and others helped build a fine reputation for agriculture.

When Canberra was selected as the site for the capital and the new Federal government began resuming the land, Ginninderra's days were numbered. A new village site was proclaimed in 1882, and Hall began to grow into the kind of village that Ginninderra never quite became.

ANZAC : 'When Hall Answered the Call'+ 'Armistice and After'

'When Hall Answered the Call' commemorates the centenary of ANZAC. The original 2015 exhibition has since been scaled back, but the essence of it is preserved. Local soldiers' histories are fitted into the context of the Great War. A special feature of the exhibition is a re-created setting of a 'Welcome Home' ceremony that was held in the local Kinlyside Hall at the end of the war.

'Armistice and After', marking the centenary of the end of the Great War records the participation of the Hall district diggers in the triumphs of 1918, the euphoria that accompanied the end of hostilities and the difficulties of repatriation and adjustment to civilian life in a world where the promises of peace and prosperity never quite materialized.

A booklet by Allen Mawer 'When Hall Answered the Call' is available from the Centre ($10).

[See a review of the exhibition by Dr David Stephens at Honest History.

Some recent Visitor feedback :

• "Excellent in so many ways!"
• "Such a fantastic place, so many memories"
• "Genuinely fascinating – extraordinary effort"
• "What an impressive display!"
• "This is an amazing display of artefacts of the area"
• "Really interesting. Loved 'Memory Lane'"
• "Excellent exhibition on selector families"
• "Loved the schoolhouse – great exhibits"
• "I was quite taken aback by the depth of your collection"