South Grafton’s flood-ravaged Pelican Playhouse is finally getting its happy ending, with plans revealed for a dazzling rebuild that will bring the much-loved community theatre roaring back to life.
The historic Through Street theatre has sat silent since the devastating 2022 floods tore through its lower level, but locals now have every reason to celebrate, with almost $1.3 million in NSW Government funding secured and fresh plans lodged to demolish and rebuild the beloved venue.
The cash was one of just 21 grants handed out across the Northern Rivers under the Towns and Villages Resilient Business Activation Program, to help towns bounce back from disaster, and for the Pelican Playhouse faithful, it means the show can finally go on.
Pelican Playhouse President Angela Clarke, speaking at the time of the funding announcement, said the theatre was itching to welcome performers and audiences back through its doors.
“We are thrilled to get the ball rolling to bring the stage alive again with music and performers from the Clarence Valley and touring artists from further afield,” Ms Clarke said. “We look forward to welcoming everyone back into the theatre!”
And what a stage it is. The Pelican Playhouse’s story stretches back more than 80 years, and it is dripping with local history.
Plans lodged for the rebuild reveal the building started life in the mid 1940s as a clubhouse, built on land donated by none other than Sir Earle Page, the former Federal MP, ex-South Grafton surgeon and one-time Australian Prime Minister.
By the late 1940s the South Grafton RSL had taken it over, slapping on the striking two-storey brick facade that still fronts Through Street today. Then in the 1960s came the transformation that made it a local icon, when the amateur Pelican Players theatre troupe moved in and turned the old dance hall into a stage.
That group would later become the Grafton Theatre Company, then The Pelican Playhouse Inc, entertaining generations of Clarence Valley theatregoers until the flood brought the curtain down in 2022.
Now the plan is to bring it back bigger and better than ever, and flood proof this time. The much-loved Through Street facade will be kept exactly as locals remember it, but behind it will rise a brand new, more resilient theatre built to keep the show going no matter what the weather throws at South Grafton next.
The rebuild will roll out in stages, starting with getting the theatre doors back open, before a second stage adds extra change rooms, a ticket booth, kiosk and all-weather covered areas so the Pelican Playhouse can once again become the beating heart of South Grafton’s cultural life.
Locals keen to have their say on the plans can lodge a submission before 4pm on Monday, 14 September.
“We look forward to welcoming everyone back into the theatre!” Ms Clarke said.
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