If these walls could talk

1 March 2026

BY GEORGIA CURRY, This article was originally posted in the Canberra Daily on 25 Feb 2026

There’s a saying about historic buildings, “if these walls could talk”, and by golly the 100-year-old hall at The Causeway has some ripper yarns.

A century ago, Canberra’s in the midst of prohibition (thanks to teetotaller politician King O’Malley) and after the war, our city was in dire need of entertainment.

There was no posh Albert Hall, our party central was The Causeway Hall.

Seeing as our population was only about 4,000, of which one third were construction workers, entertainment was eclectic – boxing matches, musicals, social dances (1920s Tinder) and scooter races.

At social dances, according to one history book, pranksters would re-arrange the prams that were left onstage with sleeping babies, and women sometimes took the wrong baby home.

In the dead of winter, according to the National Trust (ACT), movies would be screened in the drafty wooden hall, including Aussie film For the Term of His Natural Life and the silent film with Charlie Chaplin, The Gold Rush (no doubt accompanied on piano for atmospherics).

This tiny little hall (the largest in Canberra and also in NSW, south of Goulburn) had a lot of firsts.

It housed the first performance by Canberra Philharmonic Society, Canberra’s first boxing match, first motion picture screening (albeit dogged with technical issues) and first opera.

The Causeway was the home of high culture (although construction workers probably preferred boxing matches over musical theatre).

There were even scooter races held in the 1930s, in between social dances.

The Lions Club of Queanbeyan came up with a fund-raising event – a race from Canberra to Queanbeyan, with adults riding scooters. Billed as ‘a monster dance with scooter racing’, these had heats, semi-finals and finals, and their share of spills and minor injuries, and appear to have had musical accompaniment.

A century later, we still have scooter spills, albeit of the faster electric variety.

Some more firsts included Canberra’s first pantomime performance (Little Bo Peep), the first national radio broadcast from Canberra featuring the Canberra Philharmonic Society (for a whopping three hours) and the first comedy play, The Man from Toronto by the Canberra Community Players.

We sure knew how to party in the 1920s.

In a nice full circle moment, Canberra City Band will be playing at the Centenary Celebrations just as it did a century ago at The Causeway Hall’s sod-turning and also its grand opening.

Which brings us back to Canberra’s prohibition. The real reason Canberra City Band was formed in the first place – also 100 years ago – was to provide a distraction to construction workers from drinking.

It’s written in the history books.

President of Canberra City Band, Simon Mitchell, said building Canberra in the early days was thirsty work.

“They tried to make Canberra a dry town, but listen, there’s a perfectly lovely country town next door called Queanbeyan,” he said. “A bunch of construction workers toiling away, of course there would be drinking.”

The Causeway saw a nightly exodus of workmen to Queanbeyan to drink, leading to problems in the camps where most of the workmen lived. Thus, Canberra City Band was formed to distract the workers, and The Causeway Hall became the epicentre of culture in Canberra.

Remarkably, the heritage-listed hall is still in use.

Today, The Causeway Hall is home to ACT Hub, a collaboration of three independent theatre companies – Everyman Theatre, Chaika Theatre, and Free-Rain Theatre.

ACT Hub is throwing a centenary celebration on 7 March with a special concert with Canberra City Band. There will also be a historic photo display. More info: acthub.com.au/event/causeway-hall-centenary-celebration