The Lismore Workers Club has played a large part in the Lismore community for the past 70 years.

In that time, flood waters have made their way into the club on average every 7 years but never beyond the lower floors until February 28 2022.

The club board and management have taken new steps to move operations upstairs. The Lismore App caught up with The Workers Club President, Ian Harmon, for an update on the club rebuild. 

“Works are well underway on the $17.5 million renovation of our Keen Street premises."

"We were hit with some setbacks in the early stages of the rebuild due to inclement weather and some asbestos removal which we hadn’t accounted for. That has all been professionally removed and our building crews haven’t looked back since.”

“Our previous ground floor amenities will be relocated to level two which is where the majority of our services will be. This includes our bistro, pizzeria, cafeteria, bar, TAB, dance floor and gaming area."

"A new addition to this level will be a spacious lounge area which will sit above the foyer area extending out to the footpath area of Keen Street. Three large windows have been added to the facade to allow natural sunlight to filter into the club.”

(Work underway on new bar and cafeteria. Photo: supplied)

“At this stage, we are looking at reopening the club in late August to early September this year."

"We have begun to book shows for our auditorium and look forward to that space being operational again so that the people of Lismore will have somewhere to go where you can seat up to 600 people with catering and bar facilities.”

“Our ground floor will remain closed until such time as a decision is made on its future use."

"It’s an extremely large area and could be utilised for any purpose, however, the board and management are solely focused on the foyer area, level one (auditorium) and level two, making them as flood-friendly as possible. Due to the rebuild, we have unfortunately lost a number of our function rooms. We’ll still have areas for functions, however, they may be limited to certain areas.”

“Once we reopen it will have been two and a half years since the devastating floods. We are hoping that having the Lismore Workers Club back up and operational will go a small way into breathing a bit more life back into Lismore.”