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A small rural hall near Pukekohe, Mauku Victory Hall, is much-loved and run by a passionate group of volunteers.
Mauku Victory Hall bookings and maintenance officer Melissa Anderson says the 130-capacity hall is a popular venue for birthday parties, especially 21st birthdays.
Irish dancing lessons recently started up at the hall, with Tai Chi as the other regular booking. Anderson says the committee is keen to build up the hall’s usage after the post-Covid boom wound down last year.
As a community-owned hall, fundraising and revenue from hall hire fund the bulk of the hall’s expenses outside of the day-to-day costs like electricity and insurance that are covered by Auckland Council.
“We added heat pumps about six years ago, and local Peter Kraakman donated his time recently to replace the wooden tops of our trestle tables, using wood donated by Grant Wecks at Wecks ITM.”
Anderson says the committee of seven members would welcome an additional volunteer who is familiar with applying for grants, to help fund upgrades like the replacement of the hall’s chairs.
The hall also featured as the meeting hall in the 2022 biopic Whina about the life of Dame Whina Cooper, with a smaller-scale replica created for the film and then destroyed by fire.
As for the hall’s name, it was built not as a war memorial but to commemorate the Allied victory in the First World War. A plaque inside the hall commemorates its opening on June 7, 1922, by Governor-General Viscount Jellicoe.
On Anzac Day 1954, Colonel Max Aldred, who 32 years earlier had supplied the Guard of
Honour during the opening ceremony, unveiled the Mauku District roll of honour in the hall.
This is a framed brass tablet that lists 24 servicemen from the First World War and 23 from the Second World War (with two deaths from each war).
Keen to hire the hall? Contact Melissa at mvhall1922@gmail.com, 0211591379, or 09
2363390.
