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Hunt Club Community and Arts Centre

  • 775 Ballarat Road, Deer Park. VIC 3023
  • Wurundjeri Country
  • huntclubarts@brimbank.vic.gov.au
  • Monday to Friday: 9.30am – 4.30pm
    Closed public holidays

The Hunt Club Community and Arts Centre provides opportunities for you to get involved in the arts, including:

  • classes
  • exhibitions
  • artists’ studios

Our Arts and Cultural Development Unit also produces community arts projects, public art and events.

Facilities and Services

You can hire one of our rooms, for very economical rates.

  • space for between 10-40 people.
  • kitchen access
  • tea and coffee facilities
  • projector and TV
  • whiteboard
  • piano
  • air-conditioning and heating.

Are you part of an arts-focused group looking for space? Express and perfect your craft here. We also welcome theatre groups, keen to perform in our garden amphitheatre.

Please contact us to discuss your needs.

History of the Hunt Club

Our arts centre has a really interesting history.

Built as the Hunt Club hotel in 1886 (and extended over the years), this imposing building is one of the few remaining 19th Century buildings within our municipality.

Rising from the ashes of the Old Kororoit Creek Hotel, which burnt down in 1886, the Hunt Club was named for the Melbourne hunt club members who used the hotel as a base for their deer hunts. (A local referendum held in 1889 voted to rename the settlement Deer Park for the same reason.) The hotel remained in operation until 1911.

In 1921, the Australian Explosives and Chemicals Co Ltd purchased the building (later to become ICI Australia). They used it for unmarried accommodation quarters for men working at the adjoining explosives factory. During WWII, the factory became Australia’s leading explosives and chemical plant, significantly boosting the population of Melbourne’s western suburbs.

By the 1950s, the Hunt Club building stopped being used for housing, and became a centre for research and staff training. The current foyer was a research laboratory. The original steel fire door (that closed off the lab during volatile experiments!) is still there, complete with steel weights.

In 1982 the City of Sunshine purchased the Hunt Club. Three years later the Hunt Club Community and Arts Centre was officially opened.

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Brimbank City Council respectfully acknowledges and recognises Wurundjeri and Bunurong Peoples as the Traditional Custodian of this land and pays respect to their Elders, past , present and future.

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