Minister Vassarotti to launch Hall heritage booklet

Heritage Minister Rebecca Vassarotti with visit the Hall Heritage Centre on Thursday 25th July to launch a Hall self-guided heritage tour booklet - one of a series produced for the ACT government by the National Trust. The Hall booklet has been largely researched and written by volunteers at the Hall Heritage Centre. Others in the series include Dairy Flat, Kingston, East Lake and Campbell-Kingston. Information bout them can be found here'

The launch will be at 12 noon, and will be followed by a light lunch. All welcome

The Hall booklet of twenty four pages, ten illustrations and a coloured centrefold map of the village and surrounds, will be available at the launch. While it is bound to be of general interest to local community members, and visitors to the village, it may be of special interest to walking groups. The Centre will try to ensure that residents, proprietors and others associated with places of heritage interest get a copy of the booklet and know about the opportunity to attend the Launch.

Sunnyside 'pop-up'

To celebrate the launch volunteers have selected one of the twenty-four heritage places identified in the booklet - 'Sunnyside' - a small farmlet on Halls Creek, to feature in a 'pop-up' display.

In the 1880s Government surveyors began identifying larger blocks of land surrounding the village for commercial options and market gardens. In 1886 David Rule, a local selector at Allwood on the Wallaroo Road, was one of the first locals to purchase land in the newly surveyed village – a 3 ½ acre portion on Halls Creek, for which he paid £17. The land had access to the water from Halls Creek and rich, alluvial soil.

By 1906 George Southwell had purchased the land and set about building a new home for his soon-to-be wife Ethel Moon. With the assistance of the Hatch brothers who lived at nearby 'Rosewood', George built a simple four-roomed cottage. The walls are of pisé (rammed earth) construction, with front and side verandahs and gable roof. The cottage remains today and looks much like it did 100 years ago.

George and Ethel developed the land, establishing themselves as poultry farmers, bee keepers and orchardists. Like many families in the district they were virtually self-sufficient. George and Ethel lived at Sunnyside until their deaths in the 1940s.

The 1911 Hall bush school is another of the heritage places that feature in to the booklet