The venue was used for meetings, dances and balls plus an occasional church service. It was also the village’s war memorial hall with a captured German machine gun from the First World War on display in addition to memorial plaques, which were transferred to the Walcha Ex-Services Memorial Club.

In the early 1970s, the Walcha Council sought tenders for the purchase and removal of several disused buildings at Glen Morrison.

The Walcha District Historical Society’s offer of $1 for the School of Arts was accepted, despite much higher bids being made by other tenderers.

The building was brought into town in two sections and re-erected in the grounds of the society’s museum in Derby Street, minus the entrance porch and the smaller extension. It was opened in 1976 as the museum’s Wool Hall and has on display many items and photos from that industry.

The School of Arts at Walcha Road was in use in the early 1890s.

It was opposite the police station and, while the entrance was at street level, much of the building was supported on poles where the ground fell away towards Surveyor’s Creek. Dances on Boxing Day evening were very popular events in the 1940s and 1950s.

The School of Arts at Round Swamp was erected in 1907 not far from where the Brackendale Church is now. The authorities would not allow the hall to be built on the Brackendale School site, so it was erected on land provided by a local grazier. The buildings were removed many years ago.

Plans for a School of Arts at Woolbrook were put on hold until after World War I, when it was decided to build a combined A.I.F. Memorial Hall and School of Arts.

The late Joyce McHattan wrote: “The hall was the venue for many balls and dances. For several years dances were held every second Saturday night. In colder weather an outdoor log fire helped to warm the non-dancing patrons. Red Cross and CWA meetings were held there as were silent movies, and ‘talkies’, courtesy of the travelling picture show man.”