Community & Business
20 August, 2025
New home for Malanda RSL
MALANDA RSL sub branch members have found a new home, thanks to the town’s QCWA.
The Malanda QCWA Hall has been gifted to the Malanda RSL sub branch which has not had a permanent home since they had to sell their club premises years ago.
“Since the sale of the Malanda RSL and Citizen’s Memorial Club, we have been searching for a home where our veterans can meet and where our military history can be displayed and honoured,” sub branch president Gary Hunt said.
The agreement also means the QCWA has been provided with a small office to store the group’s belongings and have free access to the hall for QCWA branch meetings and craft days.
Dr Christine Reghenzani OAM, a former president of the Malanda RSL sub branch and a member of the QCWA Malanda Branch, says the arrangement will suit both groups.
“The partnership arrangement between the Malanda RSL Sub Branch and the QCWA Malanda Branch offered both groups the perfect solution,” she said.
“Both organisations have a home where they can carry on century-long traditions of community service.
“I believe this arrangement has created a win-win situation not only for the two service groups but also for our community at large.”
The Malanda Branch of the QCWA has been operating for nearly a century and what is now the hall, opened up as rest rooms in 1948.
The branch was established on 13 November 1925, when 29 ladies met at English’s Hall, Malanda to form the group. The women came by buggy sulky and on horseback over rough roads and timber tracks to attend.
In 1931, Mrs Ruth Fairfax OBE, Foundation State president, visited Malanda and the branch was granted a Health Reserve for Rest Rooms. After years of fundraising, plans for the Rest Rooms costing approximately £1035 were submitted.
In 1948, the Rest Rooms were officially opened by the State president Elizabeth Stern OBE.
The two side rooms off the main room were initialled rented to a doctor for a clinic.
In 1934, Mrs Berry, a branch member, loaned a piano until the branch could afford to purchase one. As a fundraising activity, the piano could be hired at the cost of 5 shillings per function.
By 1949, £100 had been raised to purchase a second-hand piano (c. 1910).
Malanda joined the QCWA Atherton Tableland Division in 1951. Craft meetings also started that same year. A fee of 10 shillings was set to rent the rooms or 15 shillings if crockery was used. Funds went towards maintenance of the building.
Now, the hall will start a new era as the home for the town’s RSL sub branch. Also gifted to the RSL was the piano and kitchen assets.
“The gifting of our hall was a long, drawn-out administrative process and heart wrenching one for the members. However, we concluded that society has changed over the past 83 years since the hall was opened, and that the branch is the members not a building,” QCWA Malanda Branch president Kaylene Adams said.
“Sadly, volunteering rates have been declining over the past 25 years, especially so during the pandemic, and haven’t yet recovered.
“Between 2016 and 2021, the decline has been 26%. The partnership arrangement we have made with the Malanda RSL sub branch is a great way forward offering a way for community organisations to work together.”
The hall remains for hire by the community. Please contact the Secretary of the Malanda RSL Sub Branch Neil Waite at neil.waite@malanda.rslqld.net.au.
