Call to save the Mechanics Institute Hall at Trentham

Council and a passionate group of Trentham locals have been at loggerheads since the demolition of the run-down Mechanics Institute Hall was proposed to make way for the new hub.

That anger reached fever pitch at last month’s council meeting when a non-legally binding agreement was reached between the community reference group and council. Trentham’s Cate Evans maintains the community consultation process was inadequate and not representative of the majority of the community’s view.

“The facilities review was not as consultative as it could have been when it came to site selection,” Ms Evans said. “There was plenty of consultation of the design process.” 

Ms Evans said those against the Mechanics Institute – which she claimed was 50 per cent of Trentham’s population – were not against the development of a hub.

“It’s great for Trentham to have a facility … just not on this site,” she said.

She feared the entire process was permanently dividing the Trentham community and that only a select group of people had been consulted with.

President of the Mechanics Institutes of Victoria Robert Kingston, who also lives in Trentham, stressed mechanics institutes were historically and culturally significant buildings that should be retained and were very important to the communities they were built in. 

Mechanics Institutes are privately owned buildings used for public services.

Mr Kingston said the potential to evolve the institute into a modern and contemporary facility while still fulfilling the purpose of an institute was bountiful. “We need to identify whether there are enough people in the local community (who want to preserve the site).”

Mr Kingston said Ballarat’s Mechanics Institute, one of the 500 remaining in the state, had been revived and reopened in 2014 and was a burgeoning centre.