Historic Surry Hills hall resells at same price, plus or minus GST
The church hall in Surry Hills where Australia's first television show was broadcast has been sold for $2.53 million plus GST through Ben Collier at McGrath Estate Agents.
St David's Hall was sold by Industrie Clothing founders Nick and Susie Kelly inpartnership with Boris Tosic, whose plan for a motor bike shop ran into resistance from neighbours.
They bought it for $2.53 million inclusive of GST in December 2011.
The Victorian Gothic-style church hall was one of two locations where Channel 9's first TV broadcast took place on September 16, 1956.
"The hall played a significant role in the history of Australian media," Brendan Horgan, a former media historian with the National Film and Sound Archive told News Ltd.
"Sir Frank Packer left instructions that Channel 9 had to be the first station in Australia to air, but the Willoughby premises were still under construction so they created a makeshift studio at St David's."
Bruce Gyngell said those now-famous words "Welcome to television" were broadcast from a small edit room in the Willoughby basement then the broadcast cut back to St David's in Surry Hills, where the opening night extravaganza took place.
It was broadcast from microwave links on top of the hall back to Willoughby.
The vacant church hall sits on 415 square metres. It was sold in late 2011 by the remaining member of a syndicate that had bought it in 1991 from adman John Singleton for $800,000.
The historic church hall was converted to townhouses in 1980 by architect Malcolm Carver, but after its renovation, the double street-fronted property remained in commercial use.
