"A KIND of Phoenix" is how Annette Steele describes the Local Aboriginal Land Council's refurbishment of the disused former police station in Byng Street.
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The LALC plans to be running its operations out of the building in June after what has been a protracted period of negotiation for its ownership according to the Orange LALC's Chief Executive Officer Ms Steele.
Finally handed over in May last year, the building is now undergoing a $332,000 transformation to provide more space for the expanding program portfolio currently run out of the LALC's cramped Kite Street premises.
"The whole inside is being refurbished. We're doing some future upkeep, so there's a lift going in to make it more accessible," Ms Steele said
"It won't look like the old police station."
One of the major undertakings of the renovation was transforming the former holding cells into training and meeting spaces while the building will also feature 15 offices and a small takeaway outlet for cafe-style food.
"Getting rid of the cells was really important. We've still got community members who were removed as part of the Stolen Generation and that's where they were held as children," Ms Steele said.
"So we just want it out.
"We don't want it to be remembered as a police station, hopefully the changes will help.
"It's a bit like a phoenix really."
Ms Steele said getting the new Byng Street headquarters off the ground had been enabled by funding through the Aboriginal Housing Office, and continued an exciting time for the Orange LALC.
"We're getting really busy and diversifying. We're only changing because the needs [of our community] are changing.
"We have a really strong alliance with the Aboriginal Medical Service as well, so between us, having that program delivery under each other's portfolio works. You don't see LALCs and AMS work together very well historically."
Ms Steele said the LALC made a claim on the building after the police station was moved across the road in 2009.
"It was not approved because the police said they were still using it. We continually lodged claims, then I think back in 2011, I lodged an emergency claim when they put it up for sale so it's taken that long," she said.
The police station building was not part of the recent crown land handover, which transferred ownership of several pockets of land to the LALC including the southern western side of Moulder Park and the old nine hole golf course and driving range at Bloomfield said Ms Steele.
To complement the Moulder Park parcel, the LALC will lease the former netball clubhouse from Orange City Council will plans to convert it into a community hub.
"And have it open seven days a week if we can," Ms Steele said.
"A safe drop-in centre where we can support kids."
The future of the golf course is a work in progress.
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