NSW Crown Lands has employed the NSW Department of Works to create a Cloud Point Survey via Photogrammetry using drones, GPS Satellite terrestrial laser scanning within five millimetres of accuracy in preparation for major restoration works at the historic Dome Pavilion at the Narrandera Showground.

Multiples of millions of survey shots have been taken to intimately understand the engineering and architecture of the building to allow accurate replication and accurate cost quoting from specialist trades for the ambitious remediation and renovation project being applied for funding.

The Industrial Hall is an August 2015 listed NSW heritage building and an example of the Federation Free Classical style of architecture (a style which dates from circa 1890 to circa 1915). It is characterised by symmetry, classical proportions and absence of detail with a playful quality.

The NSW Crown Lands Narrandera Showground Land Management Committee has applied for substantial capital to manage a three-year redevelopment plan of the Dome Building.

The committee pointed out that any works on retrieving The Dome from its seriously deteriorated state would be difficult, challenging and expensive to complete.

The Narrandera Showground Industrial Hall is a small, single-storey octagonal, weatherboard building with a bell-curved, domed corrugated iron roof. The building measures 11 m (36ft) to the top of the dome that was formerly surmounted by a metal, louvred ventilator that was topped with a mini dome and a flagpole (the ventilator, dome and flagpole are now missing).

The eaves are supported with curved timber brackets which are set above an external timber cornice. The building’s octagon is not equal sided, but is more in the nature of a square with splayed corners.

The 15-panel windows are mounted in the four shorter sides of the octagon, with sill heights 2.4m (7ft 10in) from ground level to provide a larger area of uninterrupted internal wall space for display. The windows have lintels 4.7m (15ft) high and multi-coloured glass in the upper window panes.

There are two doors, in the east and west longer walls. The eastern door, which appears to be original, is solid timber and comprises two units that slide open on an overhead track. The western door is a newer roller door.

Internal walls are of vertical weatherboards to approximately one metre and then horizontal boards to the wall plate, which is about 4.8 metres (16ft) above the floor.

A series of primary and secondary curved laminated timber ribs support the roof and ceiling, which again is composed of horizontal purlins and vertical tongue and grooved boards. The primary ribs meet at a decayed octagonal timber ring beam, which supported the former vent. There is a spoke of steel cross-ties at top plate level.

A painted timber and glass display cabinet fitted to the eastern wall of the building is the surviving remnant of the cabinets constructed in 1956 that originally lined the walls with a freestanding central cabinet. The missing cabinets were probably removed after 1996 due to white ant infestation.

Wooden planks on steel supports along the western wall of the Industrial Hall are not specific to this building but move between it and the Pioneer Hall on the showground.

Internally, the high walls, large high-set windows and the exposed ceiling structure of the domed roof create a remarkable, spacious and well-lit interior.

The building was painted in 1993. Previously the roof was unpainted corrugated galvanised iron and the lead ridges were more pronounced.

Prior to the 1970s the building was undermined by rabbits and started to sink. During the 1970s, extensive renovations were carried out. The building was restumped and rests on cement bricks in the centre and pipes embedded in concrete around the sides.

Showground building of state heritage significance

It now stands about 20cm (7.9in) above ground level, with wire mesh around the bottom. Guttering and down pipes have been renewed. Cross-braced ties have been placed externally on the four main sides.

The Narrandera Showground Industrial Hall is of state heritage significance as a rare example of a distinctive design of showground building. It is the only surviving building of its design and type known to exist on a showground in NSW.

Its distinctive and imposing character derives from its over-sized scale created by an octagonal form with a bell-shaped, domed roof and large, high set windows.

Internally, this building form (with its exposed ceiling structure) has created a remarkable, spacious and well-lit interior that served its exhibition function with excellence. A surviving 1956 painted timber and glass display cabinet remains fitted to the eastern wall of the building.

The building design is representative of the Federation Free Classical style of architecture that was characterised by formal classicism with a playful quality and exemplified the stability and prosperity of its occupants.

A style that was mainly confined to large urban properties, its use in a small, timber rural structure is uncommon.

The Narrandera Showground Industrial Hall is of state heritage significance as surviving evidence of the resilience and capacity of a rural and regional community during a period of prolonged adversity.

Constructed in 1902, the hall was built during the worst year of the Federation Drought (1895-1903), Building constructed about 1902 – cost 367 pounds – built by Charles Bundock – the only building of this design still in service in Australia. Note there was another building of this design built in Innisfail Queensland which was burnt down some 40 years ago.

The Industrial Hall is listed by the Heritage Council. 

This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 5 December 2024.