Meetings and community events were held in the privately owned School of Arts, which was hopelessly small and outdated. Because of this, some events have had to be held in the Warrick Theatre for its larger capacity.
It became obvious that Blacktown needed a municipal hall, and in the late 1950’s Blacktown Shire Council proposed a hall be built in Campbell Street as part of the new Civic Centre.
Bowman Hall represents – and continues to represent – a City with many diverse ethnic communities, which make extensive use of it for social and cultural performance. It is the only hall in Western Sydney where the It’s Time campaign of 1972 was launched by Gough Whitlam, to begin the Whitlam era Government, which in itself was an event of national importance.
Blacktown School of Arts was built in 1909 on land in Main Street donated by Charlotte Augusta Bowman, one of the granddaughters of pioneer Matthew Pearce. When the School of Arts was transferred to Council in 1959 for sale and demolition, it was with the agreement the proposed new council hall in Campbell Street be named after Charlotte.
Bowman Hall was opened on Saturday 23 June 1962. The Governor General of NSW, Sir Eric Woodward, officially opened the Civic Centre and unveiled a commemorative plaque, accompanied by his wife, Lady Woodward. The official opening and unveiling of the plaque took place before an audience of almost 1,000 people in the Hall at 3pm.
Also attending was Mr J B Southee, the State Member, and the Mayor of Blacktown, Alderman A Ashley Brown. It was stated that the main hall with its seating capacity of more than 800 would allow full scale orchestra concerts and like entertainment, as well as the staging of ballet and dramatic productions.
The following week, a second plaque was unveiled, commemorating the naming of the hall after Charlotte Bowman:
“Women’s organisations in the Blacktown Municipality have been given an honoured place in the special program organised by the Blacktown Council to commemorate the opening of the Civic Centre. Local history will be made when the Lady Mayoress, Mrs A A Brown, assisted by Mrs J J Grady, wife of the Deputy Mayor and wives of other aldermen, will receive the largest gathering of representatives of women’s organisations ever assembled in the Blacktown Municipality. The afternoon reception will also be the first function of its kind, hostessed by the Lady Mayoress. Over 500 women, representing organisations which play a vital role in the cultural, social, education, sporting and spiritual development of the Municipality are expected to attend.” This event took place on Thursday, 28 June 1962.
In terms of its architecture, the Bowman has no great claim to being outstanding. It is a typical example of a hall built by a municipal authority in the 1960’s, a time of nondescript and basic functional architecture.
The frontage is landscaped and features a curved driveway for VIP and disabled access. It is designed to impress a visitor as they approach and enter the building. The top of the roofline is somewhat marred by air conditioning ducts.
However, the location beside the Civic Park with its flowers, lawns and trees, gives the hall an impressive frontage appearance. The hall entrance has several striking “spider legs” reaching out across the driveway to give protection from the weather. These were not unusual at that time, for several other buildings in the State also featured ”spider legs”, such as the Lilac City Hall in Goulburn, NSW.
It has been stated that the question of architectural excellence should not apply to municipal buildings and halls of this nature. They were never built to provide architectural excellence, but functionality.
The important factor is how well the design of the building performed in its role and setting for cultural and social values, and how well the design related to the society it served. In this capacity, Bowman Hall has been outstanding in its role as a major community hall and its contribution to the social and cultural values of the wider Blacktown community.
Bowman Hall quickly became the cultural centre of its growing community. It was extensively used by the Dutch community [which had previously used the School of Arts], and migrants from Central Europe, such as Poland, Italy, Hungary and the Ukraine, in the post war period.
In 1962, not long after opening, an International Revue was staged, and this was indicative of the diversity of the ethnic population at the time, for it included the Dutch Choir, Nepean Concert Orchestra, Polish Association dancing, Dutch Bush Band, Blacktown Chloral Society and the Ukrainian Ballet. It also included songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific.
In 1975 the ground-breaking Q Theatre group staged lunch time performances in the hall, along with the AMP Theatrette in Sydney. This involved producing a short play of 20-30 minutes, to enable workers and shoppers to watch a performance in their lunch break, for a minimum fee.
The following is an example of the diversity of the presentations over the years: Blacktown Municipal Orchestra; Police Band Concert; Red Cross blood bank donation centre over many years; Little Athletics Award ceremonies; Australia Day balls and talent quests; Nurses Graduation ceremonies; Blacktown City Sportsperson of the Year Awards; Citizenship Ceremonies. (Originally these were held in Blacktown Showground, which was open to the weather, and so were moved into Bowman Hall and continue to be held there).
Blacktown Musical Society presented a musical, “The Female Factory”, which premiered in November 1967 and was repeated the following year. The Society presented many shows at the Bowman Hall in the late 1960s due to the lack of a theatre. The Bushwhackers and Bullockies Band; Proclamation of Blacktown City, 1979; Bi-Centennial Australia Day Concert, 1988; Australia Day Talent Quest 1998;
Trial by “Judge” Hazel Magann of convict Jack Brook, circa 1980, presented by Blacktown and District Historical Society.
Celebrating Women’s Diversity was held as a public forum in March 2001; Unveiling Blacktown Heritage Mural, 2003; African Emerging Communities Awareness Night, 2005; Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Discovery Series concert, 2008.
Indian Community Concerts and Events.
This summary of events, which is only representative, indicates just how important Bowman Hall was, and is, to the entire community, and the style and variation of events and meetings held there. Its diversity is quite amazing and yet it is only a microcosm of the cultural and social story of Blacktown over the last 60 years or so.
In November 1972, Gough Whitlam appeared on the stage to introduce his manifesto for the coming election. With the song “It’s Time”, sung by a number of pop stars and others, including Little Patty, [Patricia Amphlett] and Col Joye, the hall was filled to more than its capacity. It was said that Whitlam delivered a speech that changed a nation:
“The decision we will make for our country on 2 December is a choice between the past and the future, between the habits and fears of the past, and the demands and opportunities of the future. There are moments in history when the whole fate and future of nations can be decided by a single decision. For Australia, this is such a time.”
Blacktown was chosen for this event because it symbolised the new outer suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, where a new constituency was developing. Today it is still regarded as one of Australia’s most important political events.
Forty years later, on 13 November 2012, a Commemoration event was held in the hall celebrating It’s Time, with special guest Bob Hawke, organised by The Whitlam Institute and University of Western Sydney.
On Wednesday April 9, 2003, the Mayor of Blacktown, with special guests including Dr Jack Mundey, Leo Kelly and Diane Beamer, Minister for Western Sydney, unveiled the Blacktown Heritage Mural, designed by Rados Stevanovic, as part of the National Trust Heritage Festival.
The mural reflected the distant past of Blacktown, through to the contemporary lifestyle of the present and into the future. It was stated that the mural was placed at the entrance to the Bowman Hall in appreciation of Mr Stevanovic’s generosity where it could be seen by people of all ages and backgrounds.
Bowman Hall is not heritage listed, despite its extensive social and cultural history. It qualifies under several criteria of the Heritage Council of NSW for local and possibly, State significance guidelines.
These criteria, using the Burra Charter, include cultural interactions between people; citizenship ceremonies; a place of congregation and celebration; managing urban functions to create lifestyles; activities associated with the production and performance of literary, artistic, architectural and other imaginative or inventive works, and with the production and expression of cultural phenomena.
It also qualifies under the criteria of identifiable individuals and common groups, because of its association with Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke, Charlotte Bowman, NSW Governor Marie Bashir, State Premiers and others. It is associated with the history of the School of Arts and is named after a woman, Charlotte Augusta Bowman.
In 2024 the entire Council Civic Centre site, as well as part of the upper K-Mart car park were sold to Walker Corporation for redevelopment. At the time of writing, Bowman Hall’s future is uncertain, as is the adjacent Civic Park.
The hall is not protected by Council’s Local Environment Plan and neither is the former Christ Church in Flushcombe Road, now the Leo Kelly Art Gallery, which is also subject to redevelopment. Probably there are many Blacktown people who are not even aware that both buildings have been sold and are under threat.
If the hall is to be consigned to history, then it will leave behind a wealth of social significance to the people of Blacktown and districts, more so than any other building in the City.
