Doors were opened to freshly painted walls, polished floors and brand new taps at Coledale RSL Club on Thursday, April 6 following an epic relaunch thanks to more than 50 volunteers who have come together to save the club.
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"It has been amazing. It's such a heart warming story. It is inspirational," said operations manager David Lynch.
Mr Lynch is now the only paid employee at the RSL which has undergone a transformation after it was forced to close in December 2022.
The closure came after a months long saga between the Coledale RSL Club and its landlord the Coledale RSL Sub-Branch, which despite similar names, are different entities.
But as the crowds joined the volunteer crew on opening day on Thursday, Mr Lynch said the club was looking to the future.
The club will open Thursday to Sunday and will be run by 50 volunteers who are committed to the cause.
"There was a cry out from the community not to lose this place. It was a special place in the community and they didn't want it to go," Mr Lynch said.
"I've been approached to get this up and running again. It's such a passion project. It's amazing, I've got 50 volunteers."
Over the last few weeks the volunteers have been ripping down walls, lifting up carpets and painting walls to freshen up the venue.
Mr Lynch said they wanted to move away from the sports bar and gambling feel and have transformed the former pokies room into a family room complete with fusbal, board games and air hockey.
They sold off half of the clubs 12 pokie machines and have moved the remaining to the back of the building.
"We have opened up the space. All the machines are out of the large pokie room and that is going to be a kids/family room and function room. They didn't want a lot of gambling and gaming. It was turning into a sports bar. We've ripped down all the TVs. We've put the gaming and pokies up the back. We're very focused on families," he said.
For the first three months the club will have a food van onsite every Thursday to Sunday, with plans in the future to renovate the kitchen.
Mr Lynch was the driving force behind the transformation of The Bowlo, the Wombarra and Scarborough Bowling Club, known for it's live music.
He said live music was on the cards for Coledale RSL.
"We are going to look at some live music nights. We are probably going to have live music two or three nights a week. We have volunteers who want to play music for us. We'll have acoustic sessions out on the deck. We'll have ticketed events in the future - stay tuned."
The club announced in August that its finances had been "gradually disappearing down the plug hole" over five years and that this had been exacerbated during the pandemic and 2022's eight months of rain.
The reopening was flagged in mid-February, when the club called an extraordinary general meeting and extended the membership of all members until December 2023.
Coledale RSL will be open from 3pm on Thursday, April 6 with food truck Two Smoking Barrels serving food and "The Fools for Love" playing from 6pm to 9pm.
The venue will also be open on Good Friday from 3pm until late, Saturday, April 8 and Sunday, April 9 from 11.30am to late.
