This year GKI Perth Uniting Church (Indonesian) has been undergoing a restoration of their church hall; the Mosman Park building had previously become dilapidated and had largely fallen out of use.
Leo Thamron, GKI Church Council secretary, said the church has seen such growth that the restoration was necessary to increase the space to accommodate the growth.
“GKI has been growing significantly over the last fifteen years or so and what happened was that we renovated the basement of the other building but that was still not enough,” he said.
“The short-term plan is to use the hall to accommodate the Sunday School children. Medium to longer term, the plans are for the building to host cultural events… not just for the Indonesian community but for the Mosman Park community as well.”
The funding for the renovation was partially provided by donations from the GKI congregation and supplemented by a Uniting Church Investment Fund loan. GKI has ongoing fundraising efforts underway to fund the next stage of development.
“The congregation itself is very happy with how it’s been restored. Obviously with the building being heritage listed there are restrictions on what we can and can’t do, but when we did our official opening they were very impressed,” Leo said.
The newly restored hall was officially opened on Sunday 21 August, since then it has hosted cultural events including games nights and musical events featuring Indonesian cultural traditions and experiences. GKI will be undertaking further improvements on the hall in the near future, and plan to make the hall available for hire in the long-term.
Elaenor Nield