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Sullivan Hall
2-4 Nannine Street, cnr Stevens Street, White Gum Valley
Kristi McNulty in the FHS newsletter, July 2021:
In 1945 the City of Fremantle acquired land from the Anglican Church, which then owned much of the White Gum Valley area. A local parent group began meeting in April 1958 to call for a community hall to be built. Council allocated the land and the community set about acquiring materials. The main frame is believed by locals to be a reused army shed. The hall was constructed by the local community and opened in October 1959 as a Guide Hall. It was named after Jim Sullivan, as a thank you to both the Sullivan and Notley families, who had supported the building project. Girl Guides and Brownies met at the hall, and it was also widely used for concerts and dances. In 1962, a second half to the hall was completed. Local community members subscribed ten shillings a piece towards its construction. The place was managed and cleaned by volunteers and all profits went back into its maintenance. The White Gum Valley Square Dance Club was formed, which used the hall from the early 1960s into the 1990s. 1 The Education Department purchased the land from the council in 1970 with the intention to move the buildings and use the land to extend the Kim Beazley School, however, this did not eventuate. 2 The school closed and was relocated in 2008. 3 Sullivan Hall continued to be hired out to community groups. Over the years the hall has been used for weddings, birthdays, engagements, balls, discos, yoga, meditation and karate. The White Gum Valley Dancers have been using the Sullivan Hall since 1961. There was a community event held 11th August 2019 to celebrate the 60th birthday of the hall. The weather was lovely and the community turned out in droves to come and hear music, dance, listen to storytelling and watch pigeons race. 4
Footnotes
1 Heritage Council of WA, Sullivan Halls, 2-4 Nannine Avenue
2 Fremantle City Council memorandum from Hope MacIntosh to Ken Posney 01.06.1995
3 Heritage Council of WA, Sullivan Halls, 2-4 Nannine Avenue
4 Roel Loopers’ Freo’s View 12.08.2019
City of Fremantle:
History
A parent group in the area began meeting in April 1958 to call for a local community hall to be built. Council allocated the land, which it had acquired from the Anglican Church in 1945, and the community set about acquiring materials. The main frame is believed by locals to be a reused army shed.
Sullivan Hall was constructed by the local community and opened in October 1959 as a Guide Hall. It was named after Jim Sullivan, as a thankyou to both the Sullivan and Notley families, who had supported the building project. Guides and Brownies met at the hall, and it was also widely used for concerts and dances. In 1962, a second half to the hall was completed. Local community members subscribed ten shillings a piece towards its construction. The place was managed and cleaned by volunteers and all profits went back into its maintenance. White Gum Valley Square Dance Club was formed, which used the hall from the early 1960s into the 1990s.
Physical Description
Comprises of two single storey timber framed halls, clad with corrugated metal to dado and fibrous cement sheeting above.There are corrugated iron clad gabled rooves. The main hall (closest to Stevens Street) features ‘Sullivan Hall’ on the gable of the north elevation. The lesser hall (facing Nannine Street) has limestone foundations. City of Fremantle.
References and Links
Heritage Council of WA
Photo courtesy of Roel Loopers.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 17 July, 2019 and hosted at freotopia.org/buildings/sullivanhall.html (it was last updated on 14 April, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.