THE ZARAX ASSOCIATION

Properties owned by Zarax Association before the purchase of Zarax Cultural Centre.

Since the founding of Zarax Association, every committee had the dream of one day establishing a base within which Zarax could hold regular meetings, dances and other events. The journey began in September 1983 with the purchase of a single level home at 23 McKenzie Street Concord for just over $80,000 - an amount of money representing years of hard work and savings of prior committees. Nine years later in April 1992, the house was sold for $223,000. Fortunately, because the property was purchased prior to the introduction of capital gains tax, no tax was payable. The capital from the sale of McKenzie Street was deployed two years later in May 1994 when a disused ex-police station at 693 Punchbowl Rd was purchased for $205,000. The intention of Zarax Association was to build a two-story building with two retail shops on the first level and a hall or reception centre on the second level. To this end, plans were drawn, submitted and approved. As fate would have it, just as Zarax was planning for the financing and construction of the building, the land was rezoned to high-density residential. An attractive offer was made to Zarax in October 2002 by a builder wishing to construct home units and eventually, in January 2005, the property was sold for $1,546,000 (inclusive of penalties and reimbursed expenses). Although capital gains tax was payable on this property, the sale of the Punchbowl property placed Zarax in a strong financial position.

Purchase and Refurbishment of Zarax Cultural Centre

Zarax did not have to wait long to deploy its newly-found wealth. Immediately upon the sale of its Punchbowl property, a property at 196a Liverpool Rd came on the market. The two-level property, which had been constructed in the early 1960s by Burwood Council and which had been used as a hall, children's library and for other purposes by them until its sale, was perfect for Zarax. The building was in excellent condition with a large hall, kitchen and meeting room upstairs and tenanted offices downstairs. With most committee members present, Zarax successfully purchased the property at auction in April 2005 for $1,140,000 (with settlement occurring in June 2005). Zarax Cultural Centre was finally on its way to becoming a reality. Before refurbishment of the building could begin, Zarax needed to secure a modest loan and Council approval - both of which were achieved reasonably quickly. Work began on the refurbishment in late 2005. Ten years earlier, the hall had been converted into offices which first needed to be dismantled. Removal of the office ceiling revealed the original ceiling to be one and a half metres higher. Removal of the carpet also revealed the original timber floor, which made it easy to define and polish the dance floor that is visible today. New equipment was purchased for the kitchen and new tiles were laid. New tiles were also laid in the bathrooms and new cisterns were installed. Also installed was new lighting, new air conditioning, a new alarm system, new carpet and a high-quality sound system. A special anti-echo layer was sprayed onto the ceiling to greatly improve the acoustic properties of the hall. External work was also undertaken, including a new fence along the Liverpool road boundary. By May 2007, the refurbishment had been completed at a total cost of $180,000 and all licenses (occupation, liquor, Place of Public Entertainment) had been secured.

Official Opening