At last week’s council meeting held at the building, scores of angry protesters arrived, carrying balloons, signs and banners emblazoned with “Hands off the hall” and “Save our institute”.

The protesters proceeded to lodge a petition with Hepburn Shire Council, with one protester, Ciaran Chignell, delivering armfuls of folder that he said contained 200 signatures.

Mr Chignell also asked the council if they thought they had “misjudged the community’s feelings”.

The petition asked for the council to preserve and upgrade the hall and not demolish it and to put the planned Trentham Hub elsewhere.

The council was appointed manager of the building last month, and has for some time been planning to build the much-needed Hub on the site. However, it has as yet been unsuccessful in gaining state government funding for the project.

Trentham Hub Community Reference Group chair Susie Spence has previously said the institute must be knocked down as it was too small to service the community and was in a state of disrepair.

However, other sections of the community have demanded the building be protected, due to claims of its heritage value.

Mayor Neil Newitt said the council acknowledged there was “a range of strong views” and said all options for the Mechanics’ Institute and the planned Hub were still on the table.

“Rest assured the strong turnout was certainly noted along with the individual ideas and conversations that people brought to us.

“It’s still very early days and as mayor I would like council to really hear as many opinions and work with the community to find the best solution.”

Rob Kingston, a Trentham resident who is also president of the Mechanics’ Institutes of Victoria, said Trentham’s Mechanics’ Institute had enormous heritage value.

“These halls are an expression of Victoria’s emergence from pioneering,” he said.

“They have tracked our whole history. It’s written on the walls inside.”

Mr Kingston said the land had been put aside in 1880 for a mechanics’ institute, and that caveat may well still stand today.

He said the building had only fallen into a state of disrepair due to the agenda of those who wanted it bulldozed, and described the situation as a small group of residents making decisions while “everyone else is at work”.

“This is an example of a high-handed approach, which is just not acceptable to thousands of volunteers who maintain mechanics’ institutes and community halls the length and breadth of this state,” he said.

“Trentham is an appalling example of how badly things can go wrong.”

He said management should never have been transferred to the council by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.

Resident Tom Walsh, 89, who has attended functions at the hall since 1955 said the idea of bulldozing it was “just crazy”.

Mr Walsh said as a young man, he had attended “many wonderful events in the days gone by” at the hall.

“People come because they like the look of the town and the attractive look of the town,” he said.

“Now they want to pull (older buildings) down and change it.”

Mr Walsh and Mr Kingston both suggested alternative sites for the Trentham Hub including a multi-use facility at the swimming pool and an empty site at the railway station.

Resident Cate Evans said building a new hub on the site would be “totally incongruous” with the town’s heritage.

Several community members also raised the issue of removing only the building’s brick facade, which was added to the institute in the 1980s to protect the original building.

Resident Liz Burns said her grandfather had helped build the hall and helped protect it later on.

She said the building had “135 years of layered history” and that it belonged to the community.

Coliban ward councillor Sebastian Klein, who had previously championed the building’s demolition, said he was open to the community’s input. CEO Aaron van Egmond officially received the petition and said it would now be referred to the council’s General Manager Community Services, Kathleen Brannigan.

Ms Spence also said she was willing to listen.

“We, the Community Reference Group, are looking at ways of satisfying the whole Trentham community, while getting them the best facility that is possible,” she said.