Some of the management committee have refused to sign the petition.
The hall sustained structural damage from flooding in 2011 and 2022.
The previous Campaspe Shire Council decided last year to demolish the hall following consultation with the hall committee.
The new council has received a petition with 60 signatures requesting an immediate stop to demolition plans. Council has referred the petition to its communities team to continue consultation with the community.
Last year, the council decided to transform the two hectare site into a nature reserve with picnic tables, a shelter and signage about the district, which is located between Rochester and Echuca.
Former hall committee president Kevin Shead said the hall opened in 1929 but it looked like it wouldn’t make its 100th anniversary.
While acknowledging it was a sad end, he accepted that the time had come for the old hall and the cost of repairing or replacing the building made it prohibitive.
The hall carried many memories for residents but the area had been depopulated due to changed farming practices, merged properties and a more mobile population which looked to other neighbouring communities.
“The population has shrunk; there are empty places on farms, and the the families in the cottages which are occupied are more interested in other places,” Mr Shead, a farmer who raises cattle, said.
“It’s like a lot of small communities; they are fighting for their survival.”
Mr Shead 32 years serving on the hall committee.
Campaspe Shire Council and the hall committee are working together to design the reserve.
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