Tom Rogers sent this letter to Kyogle councillors and IndyNR.com
Although I fully support the idea of the new recreation centre for Kyogle I cannot support the demolition/removal of the building we refer to as The Youth Centre.
My father Tom Rogers Snr who was a past president of the Kyogle Historical Society told me that this building was erected after World War II and was funded by our local Returned Servicemen of Kyogle of which my father and his three brothers were part of.
The building was originally called The Rest Centre and was used as a purpose-built centre for people arriving in Kyogle on the buses that would pull up out front on Summerland Way.
These people, mainly women were able to use the building as a rest point after their bus trip from the outlying villages and, also as a place to have a cuppa, change baby’s nappies and hire a stroller if needed, then go about their day of shopping in Kyogle then return to the Rest Centre to catch the bus home.
My mother would volunteer her time attending to the needs of the people who used the facility.
Later on, the building was used as a meeting place for various clubs and organisations in town to hold their monthly meetings and discussion groups.
During the sixties it was also used by the then Kyogle Lapidary Club as a meeting place and they also used the small building attached as their clubhouse and workspace.
I personally used space in the building when I returned to Kyogle with my family and gave guitar and music lessons there.
We also held Kyogle Fairymount Festival meetings there.
It was also used as a creative hub for local artisans and Kyogle Adult Education and was where the idea to form the Kyogle Community Economic Development Committee was born which is now known as Kyogle Together.
These days as we know it is used as our youth centre and it serves a very real and constructive need in our community.
I believe this building is of great historical significance and ticks most of the boxes when we talk about ‘heritage significance’.
In other words, the building has historical, cultural, social, architectural, and aesthetic value and stands as another monument to the local men and women who served this country and who found a way to provide something special for their community.
Over the years I have witnessed a number of historically significant buildings meet their demise in and around the Kyogle district and it would be a shame to lose another building that means so much to a lot of people.
As I said, I support the idea of a recreation Ccentre but removing this building would be removing an important part of Kyogle’s History and Heritage.
Maybe we could rethink this and incorporate the building as the entrance way to the new building thus preserving the history and social value that surrounds the old Rest Centre/Youth Centre.
Yours sincerely,
Tom Rogers,
Kyogle