Hindon is not really a township, barely a village ... a "farming area" is perhaps a better way to phrase it. Turn off State Highway 87 on to George King Memorial Dr and meander for a solid 30 minutes through the rolling sheep and beef country of Hindon.
Once you hit the steep Hindon gorge, you are leaving the area and before long will find yourself at the Outram glen and back into civilisation.
Farmer Gill Marshall has lived at Hindon for eight years. She and husband Jamie made the move to their 162ha farm eight years ago.
Moving from Otautau, near Invercargill, the first thing Mrs Marshall noticed was the lack of community events and a feeling of fragmented connection with other nearby communities in Outram and Middlemarch.
"I used to drive past our community hall every day, watching it fall into decay. Eventually three families got together over a beer or two and decided that we would make every effort to resurrect the hall and start re-building the social network that should exist in our community."
The Hindon Community Centre was built in 1982 on land retained by the Department of Conservation after the land was subdivided as ballot farms.
It was then classified as a Recreation Reserve and the hall was leased to the Hindon Community Centre Incorporated for a 33-year term.
Photos of the hall’s opening shindig reveal a community enjoying a big night out, and the hall then had a period of great use — Sunday services each week, an annual Christmas carol service, an indoors bowling league and regular get-togethers for the community.
But following that, its use diminished.
"We are unsure of the reason for this. It seems that only a few local families were committed to keeping it going. Some of the original founders moved away and there were more absentee landowners," Mrs Marshall said.
In 2001, the Incorporated Society was removed from the register for inactivity and by the end of 2014, when the lease expired, the use of the hall had practically ground to a halt.
A local family continued to pay the rates and power bills themselves, but this was unsustainable, Mrs Marshall said.
Mrs Marshall, Diane Joyce and a small committee of people formed the new Hindon Community Centre Inc in 2018. The committee started fundraising to ensure that the hall was weathertight.
"The roof needed to be repaired, and the outside was painted. A grant was obtained from the Strath Taieri Community Board to help complete the work," she said.
A second grant from the community board was used to repair and repaint the ceiling in the main hall.
"We have put on several successful events such as It’s In the Bag nights, a band night, clay bird shoots and we have received donations from local businesses, individuals and a bequest from June Anderson, one of the founding members."
The hall has also been used as a meeting and training venue for various organisations.
Like other community centres, throughout the pandemic it suffered from a lack of funds, "but we were lucky to have raised enough money to keep things ticking over until we could again put on larger functions".
When Southern Rural Life visited, the hall committee was hosting a clay bird shoot fundraiser. A midwinter band night is being organised as well as a post-lambing bingo night.
"We are raising funds to improve the toilets and the entrance to the hall. We are also looking at the possibility of re-surfacing the floor, so we can bring back the indoor bowls league that was so popular in the past."
A challenge for the committee is getting enough help on the working bee days.
"We aren’t a big population in here, so it’s always hard to recruit help."
Mrs Marshall would like to see an extension of their community area to neighbouring settlements such as Black Rock, Lee Stream, Clarks Junction, Waipori and Middlemarch.
"It can only be a good thing when one small community turns up and supports another. With the increase in forestry planting in our area, we really do need to band together and keep our small communities alive for the sake of our lifestyles and the generations to come," she said.
