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IN ITS heyday, the Civic Hall played host to debutante balls, dances and concerts almost every weekend.
From the Royal South Street Competitions to Begonia Festival events, school speech nights to conferences, election meetings to bingo, the building (which was built in 1956) was once a hive of activity.
Even a young Prince Charles visited the Civic Hall during his royal visit in October 1974.
But then, in the late 1970s, Ballarat’s mayor reported a decline in the hall’s use, which he attributed to television and the arrival of cabarets. So, in a bid to increase the public’s use of the Civic Hall, a new kitchen annexe was added to the building.
Throughout the 1980s, concerts and exhibitions kept the hall alive.
By 1999, the Civic Hall was used just 40 times in a 12-month period, or less than once a week.
In 2002, the hall was permanently closed with windows and doors boarded up, signalling the start of a long period of neglect.
Even today, nobody quite knows what to do with the once grand dame of Mair Street.
Although a motion for demolition was passed by council last year, concrete plans for the site still appear to be a long way off.