WEE WAAThe School of Arts building in Wee Waa was erected in about 1883 and has been described as "a credit to nineteenth century workmanship". It stood on the corner of George and Cowper streets and was built of red bricks, "brilliantly moulded" by local brickmakers at a kiln on the western side of the town. The building, which had an iron roof, was symmetrically designed in two parts, one containing two separate rooms and the other, towards the back, serving as an attached caretaker 's residence. While there are no surviving records of the establishment of the Wee Waa School of Arts, it is thought that the building was constructed "under an arrangement that existed at the time with the Department of Public Construction and administered by the Minister Education." A wooden hall was added alongside the original building in 1907 and officially opened on 3 December of that year. This hall, believed to have been erected at no cost by local builders Jim Doherty and Jim Finlay, became known as the "School of Arts Hall" and provided a venue for many of the social functions which had previously been held in the main building. With the provision of the new hall, part of the original building was converted into a billiard room and the remainder was set up as R.S.L. Clubrooms. At some time during the late 1920s or early 1930s, a supper room and kitchen were added to the back of the hall. A photograph taken in 1942 clearly shows the original brick building with the wooden hall adjoining it. The supper room extension can also been seen at the end of the hall. An unusual upstairs wooden extension to the front of the brick building also features in the photograph but it is not known when it was constructed or what purpose it served. Over the years, the School of Arts building and its adjoining hall suffered badly from flood damage, particularly in 1955 when it was necessary to completely replace the flooring and to purchase new furniture. In the years which followed, limited funding meant that necessary maintenance could not be carried out and the buildings gradually began to fall into disrepair.
The School of Arts passed into the hands of the Namoi Shire Council on 21 June 1960. By this time, it was in a very bad state and was said "to be beginning to fall apart". The Council called tenders for its demolition 16 November 1972 and its final demise came in November of the following year. Its StoryVery little specific detail is available about the function served by the Wee Waa School of Arts during its earliest years. One of the first recorded functions to be held there was an Oddfellows' Ball which took place on 21 June 1906. It is known that there was sufficient demand for a billiard room to be established in 1907 and there are frequent references to the use of the School of Arts premises as a flood refuge for the town's inhabitants. In a 1973 article which told of the demolition of the original building, reference was also made to the use of the School of Arts as a recruiting and medical testing centre during the First and Second World Wars (and presumably the Boer War), and as a place from which departing soldiers were farewelled on their way to overseas service, and welcomed back on their return. It is known that during the 1930s, a series of very successful annual balls were held in the School of Arts Hall by the Wee Waa Branch of the RSL. These balls, which had a "Back to" theme, attracted huge numbers of dancers. A "Back to Cairo" Ball in about 1935, for instance, drew "250 dancers in fancy dress alone" and it was reported that George Street, outside the hall, "became a ballroom for those who couldn't find room in the hall". A huge Arabian tent was suspended from the ceiling to create the atmosphere of Cairo! Reference is also made to the use of the School of Arts as a picture theatre, originally run during the 1930s by Mr Andy Conomos and Mr Andy Megalaconomos, and later by the School of Arts Trust Committee. There was a time as well, during the early years of the Twentieth Century and through until the 1920s, when parts of the School of Arts were used as a roller skating rink. The North West Magazine of 17 December 1973 contains an interesting account of an itinerant cotton chipper 's experience at the Wee Waa School of Arts Pictures: "It was in 1968 and what was there to do on a Friday night besides following the police paddy wagon around town? Yes, the pictures, and where else to go when you had no transport but to the School of Arts. It was the time when you chipped cotton for ten hours a day and got a dollar per hour. It was good money in those days so you could afford to pay fifty cents for the pictures - it was only half an hour's work. Well the show started and the sound was so bad that you had difficulty in interpreting words, but nobody seemed to care. Outside, the lightning flashed and the thunder clapped but we were all safe and dry inside the hall. No chipping tomorrow! Then, with one enormous bang, out went all the lights. No more sound, no more pictures. One of the people who had something to do with running the show told everyone to leave as the show was now over. I still do not know what the movie was or what it was about. We didn't even get our money back on the way out." Its Later UseThe Wee Waa School of Arts was central to the town and was a convenient venue for public meetings and a variety of other group functions. The frequent, debilitating floods of earlier times in Wee Waa played havoc with its foundations and brickwork and no doubt hastened its demise. Its Significance to the CommunityIt would seem that the Wee Waa School of Arts served a useful general community function for the whole of its ninety year existence from its establishment in 1883 until its demolition in 1973. This function included the provision of recreational facilities and meeting venues. As happened in a number of other Schools of Arts in the region, the premises also served for many years as the headquarters of the local RSL Club. It is interesting that no record seems to have survived of reading rooms or libraries but it is hard to imagine that these were not a part of the services provided, particularly during the 1890s the early years of the Twentieth Century.
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