By Stephanie Gardiner in Gumble

Midday sun beats down on the rusty roof of a country hall, the heat making creaks and cracks that sound like the first heavy drops of a spring storm.

Inside the Gumble hall, women dash from the poky kitchen carrying plates of fluffy scones with jam and cream, lamingtons, egg sandwiches on fresh white bread and a cake with bright yellow passionfruit icing.

Under the shade of a pair of eucalyptus trees, children kick a footy and play cricket on the lawn as their parents and grandparents look on.

This is where the people of Gumble – a small farming community near the flour milling town of Manildra in NSW – have gathered for a century.

“It’s an active part of all our lives. It’s as important now as it was 100 years ago,” farmer Jayne Sherringham told AAP at the hall’s recent centenary celebrations.

The hall was built in 1922 after a group of farmers and their families pooled funds to create a meeting place, having relied on church or lively woolsheds for social connection.

Residents donated whatever they could afford, the primary school teacher pitching in one pound.

According to local folklore the hall’s unusually peaked roof was designed by a European builder readying for heavy snowfall, though the ceiling and fibro walls were not insulated.

During one brutal winter before World War II, the people of Gumble held a dance accompanied by an orchestra called the Gloomchasers.

“Frosty conditions did not deter a large attendance which taxed the capacity of the hall to the utmost,” The Molong Express and Western District Advertiser reported in July 1935.

The hall holds many formative memories for fourth-generation farmer Paul Windus, whose grandfather was among the founders.

“We used to have a concert here every year as school kids,” the 79-year-old recalled.

“It was like singing at the Opera House. It felt like 10,000 people were watching you.”

Nestled in a paddock on the curve of a pothole-riddled road, it is easy to miss the corrugated iron building.

But locals know the turn-off like the back of their hands, gathering regularly for milestone birthday parties, wedding receptions and an annual Christmas celebration.

Halls have long been the glue that holds Australia’s country towns together, said Jill Karena from the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal.

“They were really central to those to those communities, particularly when they hadn’t entered the digital age, so there were limited opportunities to have social interaction,” said Ms Karena, who grew up a block away from a country hall.

“There were movie nights and all the clubs, like the gardening club, would meet there, the table tennis nights were held there, it was a polling place in elections.

“I learned to dance standing on the shoes of my grandfather at dinner dances.”

The foundation, which delivers government and philanthropic grants to country communities to bolster wellbeing, regularly funds upgrades to small halls.

The Queensland Country Women’s Association received $7000 for air conditioning at the Deeral hall in the Cairns region in August, while the Edithburgh hall in South Australia got $10,000 for a new kitchen.

These kinds of humble financial lifelines are more important than ever, as halls become a focal point of recovery efforts during droughts, floods and fires.

“Halls might offer refuge during an emergency or accommodation, or they’re places to go to get information or food or medical help,” Ms Karena said.

“They’re really indispensable for local communities in that disaster context.”

But as many rural councils face financial hardship managing long road networks, water infrastructure and health and aged care services, funding for halls has not been sustained in some towns.

Many communities have taken it upon themselves to keep the doors open, including in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges where 10 halls incorporated and established a venue booking website.

The Lancefield Mechanics Institute, brimming with art deco charm, is a setting for everything from funerals to business meetings, while the “quaint and quirky” Lauriston Hall is a favourite for family reunions.

Young people, artists and musicians have also breathed life back into halls, like country singer Fanny Lumsden who performed in hundreds of small halls around Australia over the course of a decade.

In Gumble, Jayne Sherringham is determined to ensure the hall remains the beating heart of the community for generations to come.

Her family bought the property the hall sits on in the 1980s and recently carved out a plot of land around the building to gift to the community.

“It was really important for me to know it was always going to be in the hands of the community,” Ms Sherringham said.

“The Gumble hall belongs to all of us.”