Call for

By Paul Dunlop
PAKENHAM’S war veterans need a new roof over their heads.
The Returned and Services League hall is suffering from cracking walls, rot in the windows and leaks in the kitchen.
Built in the 1950s, the hall has a special and sacred place in the community but badly needs renovation.
RSL subbranch president Norm Joseph recently led a delegation of local veterans to meet Victorian RSL president MajorGeneral David McLachlan at Anzac House in Melbourne.
Repair and renovation of the James Street hall were top of the agenda for the delegation, which included Pakenham RSL’s senior vicepresident Rob Fox and treasurer Don Buntine.
Mr Joseph said local members were encouraged by the response. Victorian RSL officials pledge to visit Pakenham in the next few weeks to inspect the building.
“The meeting went very well,” Mr Joseph said. “We put our case and they were sympathetic to our situation.”
Mr Joseph said the roof needed to be replaced while other renovations were necessary in the main meeting room and in the kitchen.
Mr Fox said dry weather a few years ago prompted the brick building’s foundations to shift and the kitchen to sink slightly, creating cracks in the walls and floor.
The wooden frames of the windows were suffering dry rot and needed to be replaced while the roof was starting to leak and its galvanised iron surface was beginning to rust, he said.
Engineers have inspected the building and agreed that work needs to be done.
Constructed by the community in the decade after the end of World War II, the RSL hall is a social gathering point and meeting place for the town’s war veterans.
In contrast to many other towns, Pakenham’s RSL membership is on the rise and the club may even need to be expanded to cope with future growth as more and more people move to the area.
Mr Fox said the clubrooms had not been altered since the early 1970s when the toilets and kitchen were upgraded.
The works were done mostly by members who raised the funds themselves. This time, the task ahead is a little more difficult.
“It needs a big overhaul,” Mr Fox said.