It’s not easy walking away from seven decades of history for Canberra’s military services community.
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But Canberra Services Club is contemplating leaving “shellshock corner” in the city’s inner-south and a piece of Canberra’s social history forged in the darkest days of World War II.
The 65-year-old building was destroyed by fire three years ago and the club has been homeless ever since.
But now a land swap deal with the ACT government might mean a new home is built for the Services Club around the corner in central Manuka.
The deal, which is far from finalised, would mean a much larger club in a building that would also contain residences for military personnel and their family to be constructed by Defence Housing Australia.
The club’s potential new location is next to Manuka Childcare Centre on the corner of Captain Cook Crescent and Murray Crescent.
The land swap would allow the territory government to get its hands on the Services Club’s hallowed spot on the corner of Canberra Avenue. It would be included in ambitious plans for a major upgrade of Manuka Oval
The Services Club was established on the corner of Canberra Avenue and Manuka Circle during World War II as a place for service personnel to gather as they passed through the capital and became a Canberra institution in the post-war decades.
The wooden building on the site next to Manuka Oval, which always retained its austere wartime atmosphere, became a home away from home to serving military and veterans and gained the nickname shellshock corner.
Club president Greg Ranse stressed that no deals had been done and the move to the much larger site was far from certain.
Mr Ranse said the decision to consider a move away from the Canberra Avenue site had been difficult.
“It wasn’t an easy thing to do because of the history associated with the place,” he said.
“But the club is only a vehicle for supporting the service community and that’s our mission statement.
“Moving the club is about survival because small clubs don’t survive in Canberra.
“If we were building back there (Canberra Avenue,) we would only be able to build back to the old specifications.”
Mr Ranse said it had taken time for some of the club stalwarts to accept a move away from the spot where it had stood for decades.
“In human terms, there’s been a lot of mourning for the past but people are now prepared, I think, for a new club,” he said.
A move around the corner would present the problem of what to do with the CSC’s memorabilia, the landmark fuzzy-wuzzy angel statue and the 42-tonne Leopard battle tank that has stood on the Canberra Avenue site since several months after the fire.
The statue would always have pride of place at any home found for the services club, Mr Ranse said, but finding a spot for a tank might prove trickier.