A visit to Georgetown Qld by Bro Walter Weston and his wife Heather in 2010

During 2010 Bro Wally Weston and his wife Heather visited Georgetown in Qld and wrote this most interesting article re their visit there........

During our travels of the Australian outback we like to explore all the small towns. One thing we look for is to see if the town has a Masonic Temple. One of the most unusual Temples we found was in Georgetown. A very small town, with no more than eight shops, but the centre for the local government covering a very large council boundary. The most unusual addition to the town was a most up to date free swimming pool for all to use. It was a real oasis in the middle of nowhere. Georgetown is five hundred kilometres from the east coast situated on the Savannah Way. This Temple is constructed in corrugated iron. We approached the information centre to see if we could find the local master so that we might have a look inside. An easy task you might think? But not so. After many calls we  found ourselves at the one man Police Station. We had been assured that this man would not be able to help us.  Undetermined we approached him to discover he was the secretary of the lodge, and would be delighted to show us inside, also the only Freemason in town. The Temple itself, had originally     been a church in Normanton three hundred and fifty kilometres away, and had been moved there many years before. How they managed to move it without modern day equipment, on roads that were not very wide, I do not know.

 We met outside the Temple at 10.00am. On venturing inside you could already feel the heat  from the corrugated iron penetrating the room.  It was a most unusual sight.  There was gym equipment placed in the middle of the hall, and along the walls there were mattresses stacked about eight deep, plus the usual things you would expect to see in a temple. Naturally we asked .Why?

 He replied  “Well it is like this. Being the only hall in a small community it is also used by the local primary school for their exercise classes. When we have our meetings, which are only held quarterly our members and visitors travel anything up to six hundred kilometres to attend from every direction. The meetings are always held on a Saturday afternoon to give the men time to arrive. Some of them bring their own swags and sleep in their cars, and others choose to bunk down in the temple with the mattresses spread over the floor. They can then be refreshed before heading back to their homes and work places on the Sunday. There are usually fifty plus attending”. Unfortunately we were not there at the right time for a meeting. But the dedication of those who attended was exceptional, and an experience not to be missed.

Pictured here is the Hall where the Lodge met and in the corner a pile of mattresses for the members to sleep on