Cobar Shire Councillors voted to sell the Town Hall Building and adjacent car park at last week’s Ordinary Council Meeting.
Councillors were presented with a feasibility report on the Town Hall with four different recommendations for Councillors to consider which included: 1. Do nothing; 2. Fund the required $1,157,000 on the building to make it safe and compliant; 3. Determine the building’s purpose as a mind and soul facility and utilize Council’s Grand Precinct project’s funds for the design, noting this was the priority from the public meetings; 4. Sell the building and carpar.
Cr Nigel Vagg moved Option 4, that Council sell the building and carpark, with Cr Bob Sinclair seconding his motion.
Cr Vagg initially declined speak to his motion, saying he believed it had all been covered in previous meeting discussions.
Mayor Jarrod Marsden however opted to speak against the motion.
“There is strong enough desire within the community, and I think there is enough evidence there to say that there is a justifiable use for the building moving forward,” Mayor Marsden told the meeting.
“The sessions that we held within the community, I think, showed strong enough voice within the community that we shouldn’t just get rid of it.
“I think it does have a special place within Cobar and I don’t think we should be demolishing it and selling it off,” he said.
Councillor Peter Florence said that while he was in support of keeping this building, he would however be voting in favour of selling.
“I don’t see a way forward for this Council with that building with our other commitments,” Cr Florance said.
“It just becomes a burden to us. We cannot justify the expense.”
Councillor Deighton also supported the sale.
“$1.2 million, just to bring it up to speed, $400,000 extra to make a little bit more appealing to look at,” he said.
“We haven’t even got someone to go in there yet. We’re going to have chase grant money for that. Grants aren’t popping up, left right centre at the moment.
“So that’s going to be another empty building for how long we don’t actually know, but it’s not in the perceivable future anyway.”
Cr Deighton questioned how much the building would be used saying similar Council buildings like the Pavilion at Ward Oval only has low use.
“62 days it was used in 2025, 14 bookings were from the Shire, and 9 were other community groups. And then in 2026, 25 days, it’s been used, six bookings by the council, and five by other groups. So, as in third party groups, we’re not getting much usage.
He said spending a lot of money on a building that doesn’t have an actual purpose and just “throw moth balls at it” was a lot of work.
“If other people want to do the work, let them do the work.
“I don’t want to entertain any more time coming from the Council,” he said.
Cr Vagg then said Council should be cautious about suggesting that they were going to demolish the building as the “subsequent owner can choose to do whatever they want to do with it”.
The vote was 6-3 in favour sell with Mayor Marsden, and Crs Lillian Simpson and Kate Winders voting against the motion.
