Mareeba Shire Hall is a heritage-listed former town hall at 136 Walsh Street, Mareeba, Shire of Mareeba, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Eddie Oribin and built from 1960 to 1961 by Ernest William Lepinath. It is also known as Former Mareeba Shire Hall. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 11 October 2013.
History The former Mareeba Shire Hall in Walsh Street was constructed in 1960–1961 for the Mareeba Shire Council. It was designed by Cairns based architect Edwin Henry (Eddie) Oribin in 1956, and was his first major solo project.E. H. Oribin, `Mareeba Shire Hall,' copies of original plans in UQFL277 E. H. Oribin Collection, Folder number 03/31/01, Item numbers 01-12, Fryer Library, University of Queensland. It was constructed by local builder Ernest Lepinath, with engineering details provided by R McLean. The hall's structure is a combination of timber framing, concrete and brick, and features a striking semi-circular roof of laminated timber arches, an early use of this structural system in Queensland.
The Atherton Tableland, west of Cairns in Far North Queensland, was named after squatter John Atherton, who was the first person to establish a cattle run in the area in the late 1870s. In the 1880s the Atherton family established a wayside inn and store at the crossing of Granite Creek, supplying goods to traffic passing between Port Douglas to the north and the new tin mining township of Herberton to the south. A settlement grew on the southern side of Granite Creek and a town, named Mareeba, was surveyed by EB Rankin in 1891. In 1893 it became a railhead when the Tableland railway from Cairns to Kuranda was extended, and by 1919 Mareeba was the district's most important town.
In 1919 Mareeba became the administrative centre for what was then Woothakata Shire, and a Shire Council Chambers building was constructed on the corner of Rankin and Walsh streets in 1924. The shire changed its name to Mareeba in 1947. Owing its prosperity to a diverse agricultural economy, post-World War II Mareeba grew to become the largest tobacco-growing centre in Australia, and in 1954 the town's population reached 3369.
The former Mareeba Shire Hall was constructed on the site of the council-owned Mareeba School of Arts (1907) which was destroyed by fire on 28 March 1954. The loss of the largest hall in Mareeba was keenly felt by the community; however disagreements between local councillors about the possible relocation of the hall to another site, and the burden of reconstruction costs to ratepayers, delayed the decision to rebuild. During this process, Cairns architects Barnes and Oribin, who were designing a hall in Ravenshoe at the time, were consulted about cost estimates.`New Hall Loan Assent Sought,' Tablelander, Thursday 15 April 1954, p.1`New hall cost may be #44,000,' Tablelander, Thursday 20 May 1954, p.1`#20,000 Lessened Cost Suggested...' Tablelander, 3 June 1954, p.3`Poll suggested for new hall,' Tablelander, 15 July 1954, p.1`Poll to decide site, hall for Mareeba,' Tablelander, Wednesday 25 August 1954, p.1.
In July 1955 it was announced that a new Shire Hall would be built on the existing Walsh Street site at an estimated cost of . Plans prepared by Barnes and Oribin were accepted, with the new design incorporating all the functions of the previous School of Arts. The proposed building was described as "an igloo building, with brick front and timber structure and with a hall said to be larger than that of Innisfail's famous civic headquarters". To accommodate the width of the new hall and provide sufficient access to side and rear entrances, the Council purchased additional land along the northern boundary of the site in 1955 and 1957.
Edwin Henry (Eddie) Oribin was born in Cairns in 1927. As a teenager during World War II, he spent time in Brisbane working with the Allison Aircraft Division of General Motors rebuilding aircraft engines. Returning to Cairns in 1944, Oribin commenced architectural training with Sid G Barnes, Chief Architect of the Allied Works Council for North Queensland, whose training gave Oribin a solid grounding in structural design and construction. In 1950 Oribin moved to Brisbane to work and study, and on 10 February 1953 he obtained his registration as an architect in Queensland, returning to Cairns the following month to begin a partnership with Barnes. This partnership lasted until Barnes' death in 1959, after which Oribin continued practicing on his own.
Oribin undertook a wide range of work in North Queensland between 1953 and 1973. Throughout his career, he was devoted to experimenting with different structural and aesthetic ideas, drawing inspiration from a wide variety of Australian and international publications. Characteristics of Oribin's work included meticulous detailing, structural creativity and concern for the modulation of light. He was also known for his model-making skills and superb craftsmanship, often creating objects himself.
During the 1950s Barnes, and later Barnes and Oribin, were well known architects in Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands, receiving numerous commissions for a range of small- and medium-scale projects, such as fire stations, shops and hospital facilities.For example: Babinda Fire Station (constructed 1954) Prior to working on the Mareeba Shire Hall, Barnes and Oribin had designed at least two other halls in the region: the RSL Memorial Hall at Babinda (completed 1954, destroyed by Cyclone Larry in 2006, rebuilt 2010) and Ravenshoe Divisional Hall (designed 1954, completed early 1960).``#40,000 town hall opened at Ravenshoe,'Tablelander, Wednesday 6 April 1960, p.1.
Public halls of varying design and dimension are landmarks of Australia's cities and suburbs, shires and towns, important as social venues and focal points for their communities. In the mid to late 20th century, hall designs were evolving away from the traditional concept of a central auditorium with council chambers and municipal offices attached, towards more multi-purpose halls and civic centres. Many new halls constructed throughout Queensland during this period replaced earlier halls that had been destroyed or become inadequate for communities' needs. While each contained a different combination of features and facilities, such as clock towers, libraries, supper rooms, public toilets, memorials, shops or offices, common to all public halls was a large multi-purpose auditorium with stage and dressing rooms.Fiddian, Civic Palaces, 5-97
Construction of the Mareeba hall began in 1960. The laminated timber arches were constructed by the builder E Lepinath in a nearby warehouse before being transported to the site and erected. These arches were able to span the wide floor, allowing for an unobstructed ceiling height of .
Laminated timber arches, constructed by overlapping and bolting together small pieces of timber to make a single, large member, have been in use in Australia since the mid-19th century. Cost-effective and able to span large distances without intermediate posts, laminated timber arches also became an alternative system for roof structures of large buildings such as markets, factories and, from the early 20th century, large auditoriums and picture theatres. The process of glue lamination, using casein glue to bond the layers of timber rather than bolts, originated in Germany before being introduced to the United States in the 1920s. Several publications in the 1930s and early 1940s provided the necessary data for constructing glued laminated timber arches, and became a source of inspiration for Australian designers. The earliest experiments in Australia took place in the early 1940s and the arrival of powerful synthetic resin adhesives in the post-World War II period increased the reliability and range of applications of glue lamination. The former Burge Bros Factory in Melbourne (1945–1946) is considered to be the oldest known surviving example of this technology in Australia, with semi-circular arches spanning , manufactured by Sydney-based company Ralph Symonds Ltd.Lewis, `Timber Engineering & Lamination,' part e`Former Burge Bros Factory,' Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) number: H1216.
Despite the technology being available, it wasn't until the 1950s, when curved shapes such as conoids and hyperbolic parabolas became fashionable, that glue laminated arches were more commonly used in Australia, particularly for church structures. Recognising the structural and aesthetic potential of this new technology, Oribin specified glue laminated timber arches for two of his earliest buildings, St Paul's Anglican Memorial Church in Proserpine and the Mareeba Shire Hall; both were designed in 1956 and completed within 5 years, making them an early use of the technology in Queensland. The Proserpine church was completed first, in 1959, with engineering details for both buildings provided by Cairns engineer R McLean.E. H. Oribin, `Proserpine Church of England,' copies of original plans in UQFL277 E. H. Oribin Collection, Folder number 06/63/03, Item numbers 01-05, Fryer Library, University of Queensland
The "igloo type of construction" of the hall's design, made possible by the glue laminated arches, was viewed favourably by the local councillors, as it was seen as a cheaper method of covering large areas than more conventional structures. World War II igloos, with their large curved trusses made from small pieces of timber, were a familiar building type in the region and to Oribin, who had worked in the Allison Overhaul Assembly Plant igloos at Albion during World War II.Majer, `E. H. Oribin,' 4
The hall was officially opened on 15 March 1961 by the chairman of the Mareeba Shire Council, Cedric Lewis Davies, having cost a total of . The main auditorium provided seating accommodation for 800 people and a dance floor of approximately .`Mareeba's new town hall ready for opening,' Cairns Post, Wednesday 15 March 1961, p.1 The area under the stage and dressing rooms contained a kitchen and supper room. The main entrance foyer provided cloak room facilities, a ticket box and soft drink bar, as well as stairs to a gallery level above. Sliding metal and coloured glass screens separated the foyer from the auditorium. The library was located in front of the auditorium with a separate entrance, and contained "outdoor reading rooms" and a workroom enclosed with vertical wooden louvres. A newspaper article described the hall as having been "constructed on very modern lines and featured flood and spot lighting designed to give the best effects for stage production". Considerable attention was given to natural ventilation, through the ridgeline and high side windows and through the perforated brick panels in the side window bays. Oribin's characteristic innovation and attention to detail was evident throughout the design, from the carefully planned layout and circulation routes, the complex intersection of horizontal and curved elements in the roof structure, to the use of the circle motif in ornamentation.
The new hall soon became the heart of social and cultural life in Mareeba, hosting numerous events including dances, plays, musical performances and film screenings. The integrity of Oribin's design led to the hall's survival through many cyclones and its use as a community evacuation centre during severe tropical Cyclone Yasi in February 2011. The hall has been occupied by the Mareeba Police-Citizens Youth Club (PCYC) since 1999 and in 2013 is still used for a variety of community purposes.