Community
28 March, 2025
Skipton Hall proves place to be
SKIPTON’S Mechanics Institute Hall is proving popular for residents and visitors alike, with the hall seeing a variety of events and meetings including regular movie nights.
The hall, located at 5 Anderson Street, boasts an industrial kitchen, a meeting room and the supper room alongside the main hall, with the Skipton Library also running out of the hall two days a week.
Skipton Mechanics Institute Committee secretary Ian Nash said the hall saw constant use, whether it was multiple rooms or just one.
“Just about every night there would be a meeting of some description,” he said.
“We’ve got other facilities in the town, but they tend to use our hall, which is what it’s here for – a community facility.”
Committee president Amr Rasheev said there were a variety of events held at the hall, from local family events to larger events drawing visitors from other towns.
“A lot of people hire the hall – school concerts, there was a wedding not long ago, and the footy club usually have a big bash here once a year,” he said.
“It’s not expensive to hire it at all.”
The hall has also seen use for shire-wide events such as last year’s Australia Day awards ceremony run by the Corangamite Shire.
One regular event which sees high popularity is the committee’s monthly movie nights, which brings in 20-30 people each month come watch a movie and enjoy a supper together.
Mr Rasheev said the movie nights were a way of providing another form of entertainment outside of sport for community members to enjoy.
“It was just something the committee thought of to bring people to the town from surrounding areas,” he said.
“People can suggest movies, and if we can get them, we get them.
“It’s $10 to come in, and there is supper afterwards which is included in the admission fee – the $10 is to cover for the licence we have to buy for the movie to show it.
“We’ve joined the Corangamite Film Society, and they organise the licence for us and we pay for it.
“During daylight savings, it’s Friday night (at 7pm), and then when daylight savings finishes, and it starts getting dark and cold, it’s a Sunday matinee at 2pm.”
Mr Rasheev said attendees often provide positive feedback for the movie nights, with supper often lasting into the night as people come together and enjoy good company.
“We’re usually here until 10pm for supper, or even longer,” he said.
“It just gets people out and about and talking. They enjoy the movies – the ones who have come say they enjoy it immensely.
“We try and cater for everybody – we’ve put on a few Australian movies.”
The 120-year-old building also holds historical significance for the town, being the storage space of items from the town’s Returned and Services League (RSL) branch.
Mr Nash said many parts of the hall were historic, but the hall committee continues to look to the future of the venue.
“She’s an old building – you would just about say a historic building, so everything within it is quite historic,” he said.
“We’ve got a big project to help rewire the whole building, and that’s going to cost a substantial amount of money.
“It’s all old stuff that hasn’t been done, and it’s been left to Amr as president to see this action through.”
Mr Rasheev said he hopes for the movie nights to become “bigger and better” and for more people to hire the hall for use into the future.
“I hope the community gets something out of it – that they have somewhere to go once a month to see a movie,” he said.
“It’s usually one of the latest movies – a year or two old, perhaps.
“And I hope the surrounding area will start to come in and use the facility or see a movie.
“It’s just finding the right movie to suit the right audience.”
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