Green space end for Port Denison’s Fishermen’s Hall

In an end to the controversial decision to demolish Port Denison’s historic Fishermen’s Hall, the Shire of Irwin is set to lay grass this week at the former site to finish its green space initiative.

In a report to Irwin Shire’s ordinary council meeting last week, parks and gardens supervisor Mark Jones said the team was preparing to tidy up the location. “We’re set to put some fencing around there and the turf will be down by the end of the week,” he said.

The building, which began its life in 1894 as a bond store for wool exports, was torn down in late 2019 despite fierce resistance from locals.

In the 1990s it became a popular weekly social centre for the fishing industry after the Dongara Professional Fishermen’s Association acquired the building and renovated it.

In 2019, councillors voted remove the old building, which had fallen into disuse, as an initiative to improve green space and parking along the Port Denison foreshore.

At the time, 80 people attended consultation sessions or made formal submissions to the Shire with 87 per cent saying the Hall should be kept.

When the demolition was scheduled for October 2019, a few community members fought back, parking vehicles around the hall in a failed last-ditch attempt to stop the works.