Talarm community - your hall's future is in your hands
Published on 06 November 2025
A pop-in session is being held at Talarm Hall next Wednesday 12 November to canvass interest of forming a new committee or ideas for the hall, after the recent hall Annual General Meeting saw the committee retire.
Nambucca Valley Council General Manager, Bede Spannagle, congratulated the committee for volunteering to manage the hall for four years and said now the hall was seeking a new future.
“Talarm Hall has been managed by its community for several decades through a Section 355 Committee of Council,” he said.
“A Section 355 Committee of Council occurs through negotiation when at least three or more residents wish to volunteer to manage a community asset of Council to the benefit of their community.
“I would like to acknowledge the great work done by Sam and Kristi Petrassi, who have just retired from the Talarm Hall Committee, as well as Brian Liddell who has assisted by maintaining its grounds.
“Only five people attended the Talarm Hall Committee AGM on 13 October, including Council staff, and no nominations were received for committee positions.
“So now it’s up to community members to quickly put up their hands if they are interested in volunteering to be part of the hall committee or to contact Council’s Community Development Officer, Jocelyn Box, to discuss alternative ideas for the hall.
“If no interest is shown, I will have to look at alternative options for managing the hall or closing it.”
Mrs Petrassi said she had grown up attending dances and parties at Talarm Hall and that its walls are clad with beautiful quilts and old photographs, sharing the stories of local families.
“Historically, this has been such a community-based area where people knew each other, said ‘hello’, and lent on each other. People would come together and meet at the hall just to have a cup of tea and be together,” she said.
“However our experience over the past four years of putting on bush dances and other events found attendance was not as high as we had hoped.
“Without more helping hands, we three volunteers decided we could not continue managing the hall on our own.”
Talarm Hall is located on the corner of Talarm and Rhones Creek roads.
Council’s Community Development Officer Jocelyn Box will be leading the pop-in session at the hall next Wednesday 12 November from 4-6pm. She can also be contacted on 6568 2555 or council@nambucca.nsw.gov.au.
Expressions of interest for the Talarm Hall Committee positions or for the use of the hall are due by 30 November 2025.