History of Clifton Hall

History Notes

One of our special buildings in Barraba would have to be Clifton Hall built in 1921 – a building considered to be very necessary as the Barraba population had increased so much that the Mechanics Institute in Maude Street could no longer cater for big events such as meetings, floor shows and popular dances.

Tim Shellshear, in his report in 1999, on the whole of Barraba’s main street, devoted a whole page to its design and what could be done to bring it back to its former self. Tim’s description of the facility included the gates, shop front and fire escape – at the time, the building had been freshly repainted which sadly was probably the last time it was painted!

Clifton Hall was actually built for Mr Clifton of Clifton’s Garage across the road – it was soon accompanied by the Empire Café next door, where Mr Sofis advertised meals at all hours. He later moved his café across the road and the building became an accountant’s office. It is now Andy’s Backpackers.

In later years, deck chairs supplied seating on the ground floor (they had been bought originally for showing films on the eastern outside of the building.) I do not know the reason for bringing the film shows inside but I suspect storms and mosquitos had something to do with the move.

From memory, I think there was a row or two of normal theatre seats downstairs and there were definitely several rows of seats upstairs – I wonder how many patrons remember the bags of ‘Jaffas’ dropped in the upstairs area and most people clapped and cheered as the sweets rolled down to the front under the chairs.

After the theatre closed it had many short-term uses before becoming a printing shop – the first publication of the ‘Nandewar Settlers’ was printed there as well as ‘Cobbadah’ – sadly both are now out of print.

In 1969 the owners of the printing machinery printed a ‘Special Barraba Gazette’ for the railway celebrations and they followed this up with weekly copies of the ‘Barraba Gazette’. Steve and Kerry took on the ‘Gazette’ for many years before closing down and retiring when Covid developed.

Finally, before finishing this week, I must note how many people appeared on Facebook to comment on the Sofis Family. Julie has handed on some from the Facebook page – it’s great to recognise the names – Wayne catching the train to spend the school holidays in Barraba. Those who were at boarding school travelled to Barraba on the train and it was wonderful to get home for a couple of weeks – and there was always a visit to the Sofis Café, especially on Saturday when shopping had to be done.