The Federal Hall was opened on 6 December 1912 and was used regularly for the showing of silent movies. In the 1900s, roller skating was a craze, and on 31 July 1914 a fancy dress skating carnival was held in the hall. The skating is said to have finished at 10pm, followed by dancing until 4am. Apparently dances didn’t start until the pubs closed.

It had been planned and intended that a War Memorial Hall would be built in Bungendore, and fundraising commenced in 1951. The big “Heldorado” that was held on 1 September that year saw events in buck-jumping, steer riding, bull-dogging and flat races. The fundraising efforts culminated in a Queen Competition and Carnival in October with a procession of floats representing every phase of town and district. On 12 October at the Federal Hall, Patricia (Patsy) Sherd was crowned Competition Queen.

Despite all the fundraising efforts, on 26 December 1951, the Goulburn Evening Post (NSW) reported: “The people of Bungendore have decided to abandon the original plan of building a new public hall as a war memorial, following advice that a considerable time is likely to pass before the proposed building could be ready for use, due to the scarcity of building materials.

The committee, headed by the Rev. W. Pyke, has now decided to purchase the Federal Hall in Bungendore and re-model the premises so as to make a worthy memorial. Plans for the purchase of the building have been finalised, and it is intended to build an entirely new front to the hall in the modern style, to lay down a first-class dance floor and provide up-to-date facilities and committee rooms.”

The hall was changed to the War Memorial Hall sometime after 1951. The building has operated under a trust from the 1950s onwards and was renovated in the 1960s where the new façade was constructed and the previous brick projection tower and external stairs demolished. The internal wall that separated the ‘Dining Hall’ and kitchen was demolished and opened up the hall. This occurred post a Lions Club fundraising event and dining experiences continued with the issues of access etc. solved.

The publication of 1990, A Walk Around Historic Bungendore Village, notes that both Prime Minister Bob Hawke and NSW Premier Neville Wran have addressed dinners in the War Memorial Hall. It is reported that a legacy of Neville Wran’s visit was the new gents’ toilet block, referred to by some as the ‘left wing’. Up until this time, it was pan toilets out the back of the block.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, a dinner/dance was organised by the Bungendore War Memorial Committee and held in the hall on 17 November 2018. Members of the National Military Reenactment Group (NMRG) attended and joined in the evening in full WWI military attire and led the event with the national anthem of the day “God Save the King”.

Renovations continue on the hall today to restore the building to her former glory with modern additions like air conditioning etc.