Walcha Neighbourhood Centre to set up in new Fitzroy Street space as community rallies after fire; Oxley police investigate

Staff and volunteers at the Walcha Neighbourhood Centre were devastated when they were told on Wednesday morning a suspicious blaze had broken out inside the building about 10.30 the night before.

Centre coordinator Jaz Taylor told the Leader it was awful news.

"All the kitchen area is damaged," she said.

She said the rest of the building had suffered smoke and water damage as firefighters worked to douse the flames.

The fire, which is being investigated by Oxley police, left the organisation with nowhere to work from, or operate its community events and food pantry.

But, the small community of Walcha rallied to support the centre with offers of help.

The building's owner offered the centre a vacant Fitzroy Street unit just up the road to set up in.

Ms Taylor said she was keen to come back bigger and better.

"We've had so much support from the community, it's been amazing, the response is just phenomenal," she said.

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It will still take a little while to get back up and running again, but Ms Taylor said it was good the food pantry, one of the centre's valued community resources, and its contents managed to survive the blaze.

A retained firefighter herself, Ms Taylor closed off the doors to every room in the building when the three staff and the volunteers left for the Christmas break. It helped stop the flames from spreading, she said.

"It was just lucky that I did that because the food pantry was not damaged one bit," she said.

"It helped people with low incomes just get some basic food items - the growing cost of these items is just phenomenal - and it helped them out every week with the basics."

A lot of the possessions from inside will have to be replaced but Ms Taylor said at least they were only material items.

Walcha Neighbourhood Centre also does referrals to many services and agencies, supports families, does advocacy work, facilitates community services and more.

The fire left the centre with no phone but people can message the Facebook page if they need to get in touch, email walchanc@familysupport.org.au or call the Uralla branch on 6771 1457.

Detectives suspect the fire was deliberately lit and are appealing to the public to come forward with any information, CCTV or dashcam footage from the area at the time for their investigation.

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