(COUNTRY) Dharawal
When the Sutherland Civic Centre opened in 1976, just three years after the Sydney Opera House, the local press called it the “Opera House of the southern suburbs.” This was a bit of a stretch for the dignified but boxy, mid-brown brick public hall with its single entry point and blank response to all other elevations. But neither was it incorrect. The budget had been significant, the process long and fraught, and the council was trying to bring some civic pride to an area more strongly associated with Puberty Blues than high culture.
The Civic Centre was a large, flat-floored room with a steep mezzanine over the back section and minimal foyer, back-of-house and administration space. The entry was off a large open plaza facing the) would have had to stand around in the rain or the wind – or get blasted by the late afternoon sun – before slipping through the skinny, foyer-ish space and into the hall.
