Echuca Neighbourhood House (ENH) celebrated its 30th anniversary on Wednesday with more than 50 people in attendance.
ENH’s Gwen Smith said it was “very exciting” to meet such a long milestone for an idea that was born during a small meeting in her friend’s kitchen in 1990.
Mrs Smith said when the High St house was first offered to the group it was a dilapidated disaster and people in the group were hesitant that it was a job they’d be able to take on.
“It was just a wreck. It had been leased by the YMCA, who had it as a house for the homeless, but they weren't very many homeless and it just went to wreck and ruin,” she said.
Mrs Smith said fellow organiser Margaret “swung around” to her and told her not to even think about rejecting the house.
“She told me they won't give us another one. She said ‘we'll take this one and worry anything else later’,” Mrs Smith said.
They cleaned up and renovated the house through a government grant, workshops and clean-up volunteer days.
Mrs Smith said it was a “great difficulty” and took them a couple of years but in May 1993 the building was finally habitable.
The neighbourhood house continues to support the community through a variety of avenues, such as holding general interest classes and community lunches, giving out no-interest loans, assisting community members with filling out forms or applications, and serving about 50 families a week through Food Bank.
President, Trevor Crane said it was an “incredible achievement” to still be operating this many years later and that it felt great to be such an important part of the community.
“We’ve done a lot during COVID and the floods,” he said.
During the pandemic lockdown, the ENH worked with a local restaurant to deliver meals to people who were struggling. It offered similar support during last year’s flood disaster.
Nicholls MP Sam Birrell said he admired the connectivity that existed in the Echuca community that was lacking in larger cities.
“When you come to places like Echuca and Rochester, particularly, lately, you just see the way that the community bonds together and the neighbourhood house is an example of that,” he said.
“I'm so proud of the volunteers, and the people who started this place and the people who had the foresight to get it up and running.”