Senator for Queensland, the Hon Joe Ludwig, visited Kingaroy on Friday 21 May to announce Council's success in obtaining $1.6M in funding towards upgrades to the Kingaroy Town Hall Forecourt & Library Precinct under the federal government's Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program Strategic Projects (RLCIP-SP).

The funds provided by the RLCIP-SP will allow council to move forward with the next stage of this upgrade much sooner than planned. The revamp of Kingaroy’s town centre will be of enormous value to the South Burnett community, enabling greater use as a meeting space and location for both minor and major events.

To keep our community up to date, council has posted as much project information as possible on this website and will continue to update this page as new information comes to light or as stages of the project are completed.

Background:

The Kingaroy Town Hall Forecourt and Library precinct has been identified as an area that requires renewal to ensure its ongoing suitability for community usage, the purpose for which it was originally built. In 2009 the Town Hall Forecourt & Library precinct depicted a harsh unwelcoming landscape with vast areas of concrete and with no shade or seating provided. Whilst considering a concept for the new face of the precinct it was considered important to modernise the existing landscape whilst still preserving the heritage of the original surroundings.

An overview of the works that will be completed are as follows:

• construction of an outdoor stage by extending out the front of the town hall;
• construction of verandas and facades to the library and Council office (the veranda to the library will have the capacity to be filled in at a future date in order to extend the library);
• bringing the entry to the library to the front of the building to face Glendon Street;
• integration of a coffee shop in front of the existing library to create a hub in the centre of town;
• provision of a community noticeboard for festivals, events and general awareness;
• creation of an indigenous focused art and history area incorporating the story of the region and our attractions and facilities;
• installation of more shade and seating;
• construction of improved disabled access to the council office, library and town hall; and
• installation of energy saving devices including a subsurface rainwater tank under the new outdoor stage and installation of solar cells to the town hall roof.

Thomson Adsett Architects developed concept plans for Council further detailing the works as well as providing artist impressions / visual interpretation of how the facility will look after the upgrades have been completed. These documents are available for download here.

When will these works be completed?

A basic time line for the project has been provided below.