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Cooroora Masonic Temple is a heritage-listed community hall at 9 Station Street, Pomona, Shire of Noosa, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1923. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 12 December 2003. == History == The former Cooroora Masonic Temple was erected in 1923 and is opposite the Pomona railway station in the small Sunshine Coast hinterland town of Pomona.〔 The land on which it is situated was part of an Agricultural Allotment of 160 acres occupied under license by Robert Peter Grant in 1896. The area developed in the early 20th century with an economic base of timber, dairying and fruit growing. Page Furnishers Pty Ltd, a furniture making concern established in 1919, has also been a major source of local employment. The township of Pomona was named in 1900 for the Roman goddess of fruit and for much of the 20th century acted as a service and administrative centre for Noosa Shire.〔 Freemasonry was established in Pomona in 1913. It had arrived in Australia with the first European settlers and spread from New South Wales into Queensland in individual lodges. The first Freemason's lodge in Queensland was established in 1859, shortly before Separation from New South Wales. New lodges were formed as settlement spread, as when a group of 17 Masons in Pomona applied to the Grand Lodge of Scotland to form a Lodge under the Scottish Constitution. This was consecrated as Lodge Cooroora No 1128 on 15 November 1913 at a ceremony at which 78 people were present. The first ordinary meeting was held on 13 December 1913. In 1920 the Lodge affiliated with the Grand Lodge of Queensland under the English Constitution and on 21 April 1921 joined the United Grand Lodge of Queensland as Cooroora Lodge No. 232.〔 For the first ten years of its existence, the Cooroora Lodge met in a hall at the Noosa Showgrounds. On 22 May 1923 the Trustees of the Lodge purchased a block of land across the road from the railway station. A temple was erected using volunteer labour and cost £800. The first meeting in the new building was held on 23 June 1923.〔 A local fruiterer and restaurateur, William (Bill) Hodge, who had joined the Lodge in 1920, was Master in 1924-25. In 1925 he began a project to embellish the temple that was to take nine years to complete. Working mainly in the evenings he painted trompe l'oeil murals on all four internal walls of the lodge room. These murals are replicas of those that decorated the Masonic Temple at the Criterion Restaurant, London and were featured in an article in the September 1921 edition of an English Masonic magazine, the Masonic Record. Using the small black and white photographs accompanying the article as a guide, Hodge reproduced the scenes of classical and biblical architecture on the walls of the Pomona temple. Between 1925 and 1928 he painted the Eastern and Western walls and between 1932 and 1934 the southern and northern walls. Hodge mixed the lead-based paints himself, using a neutral palette of beige, grey, black and white. During both periods he worked by kerosene light, as electricity was not supplied to Pomona until 1941. Hodge died in 1949 and is buried in Pomona cemetery.〔 The subjects and symbols depicted are integral to Masonic tradition and philosophy. Although materially modest in value, reflecting the economic status of the small community who met there, the murals provide a sense of richness and elegance to what would otherwise be a very simple interior. They are valued and have been cared for by the members, remaining in good condition.〔 It is believed that the Criterion Restaurant and the original murals were destroyed during the bombing of London during World War II and that no other known copies of the murals have been made. .〔 Some of the furniture in the temple was made locally by Page, possibly by Herb Page who established the original cabinet-making workshop in Pomona in 1919.〔 The number of lodge members peaked in 1965 at 55. Falling membership numbers and lack of funds to maintain the building made the lodge unviable and the building was sold in 2005, with the lodge then meeting at the Tewantin Masonic Lodge before being wound up entirely in 2008.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cooroora Masonic Temple」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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