A ball in the district every Friday was the only event in her rationed social calendar as a Year 12 student.

With the Learmonth Art Hall celebrating its 150 year anniversary, a lush afternoon tea and ticketed ball on October 28 will provoke echoes of the past. 

Ms Moodie said the hall was always spectacularly decorated with streamers and crepe paper flowers.

“Every event was filled to the brim, and the fight for belle of the ball was always quite competitive,” she said. 

“My brother was once bribed into being my partner for the dance, with my parents promising him the car on Saturday night.

“My partner in the photograph, Keith Hucker, was an beautiful dancer, almost as good as my husband. 

“He was fantastic at the Pride of Erin, because he could swirl you around to advantage. 

“I always joked that he’d won more belle of the balls than I ever did.”

In the late 1800s, the Art Hall was a leaky schoolhouse with no heating.

Ms Moodie said it soon became a meeting place for all and sundry.

“As a child I remember that the ladies of the Red Cross used  to host an afternoon for the patients of the Lakeside Mental Hospital,” she said. 

“I was very anxious to see my mother dancing with men who 'looked different'.”

Owner Sarah Lloyd says she’s tried to preserve the “open door” spirit of the building since she purchased it 18 years ago. 

“It’s always been a social hub in Learmonth, through its various iterations as the Temperance Hall, the Mechanics Hall and now the Art Hall,’ she said. 

“The dances themselves have an incredible history, there was no alcohol allowed within 100 yards of the hall until the 1950s. 

“The men picked a tree they thought was about 100 yards away from the hall and stood under it drinking longnecks.” 

The Art Hall afternoon tea will take place 2pm to 4pm, with a photo display of the building’s history. 

Ailsa Brackley du Bois from City of Ballarat’s Heritage Advisory Committee will discuss entertainment in the Goldfields region during the 19th Century.