When the Lighthouse church bought the well-known Yallah Woolshed building eight years ago, it was so dilapidated that the new owners thought they might have to tear it down.
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But church leader and Woolshed CEO Annette Bartlett said it quickly became clear just how well-loved the former bush-dance barn and rock venue was among Illawarra residents.
“So many people know about the Woolshed – I can be in Sydney and someone will say ‘Oh, I once went to a bush dance there’ or ‘I saw one of my favourite bands there’,” she said.
“So we started to realise just what an important, iconic building in the Illawarra it was, so we realised we should be bringing this place back to life.
“And as we were travelling around, even overseas, we started to see places the community met in that looked just like the Woolshed.”
She said the church organisation was interested in creating a community space where people could escape their home and work, similar to Sydney’s The Grounds of Alexandria, which combines a cafe with gardens, galleries and other activities.
“There’s this idea that’s happening socially where people do want to gather in places, they don’t want to be isolated from people, because more and more we don’t know our neighbours, we’re on our iPhones, we’re on screens all the time,” she said.
“There are these collectives occurring where people are trying to build a space where, if you’ve had a stressful week, you can come in and hang out with your friends, have good food, good coffee.”
On Saturday, the first three businesses in the Woolshed “collective” started trading: Milk and Co Coffee, Fine Spun Catering and Gypsy Flora floral artistry.
Ms Bartlett said there were two other small spaces up for lease in the barn, which she described as the first stage of the Woolshed’s redevelopment. She said Lighthouse would be asking for people’s input their own ideas for how the building could develop in the future.
“Part of the community is church, is people of faith, so they will be part of the community who are coming in to use that space,” she said.
The Pentecostal Lighthouse group has owned the Yallah site and surrounding buildings since 2008, and runs a homeless accommodation service from part of the site.
A development application to turn the Woolshed into a place of worship – which includes a main worship auditorium, creche, Sunday school, parents room and office space – was lodged in 2015 and remains before Wollongong City Council.
Under those plans, a church service was to be held on Sundays, attracting 140 adults.