Why Murray Bridge Community Centre is the Murraylands’ favourite not-for-profit
The winners of a new category at the Murraylands Business Awards explain what they do and why it’s important.
This story is brought to you by Bowhill Engineering, sponsors of the 2026 Murraylands Business Awards.
Bringing people together and meeting their needs is what Murray Bridge Community Centre is all about.
At a time when cost-of-living pressures and social isolation are affecting so many, it’s a critical mission.
Perhaps that’s why the community centre was named our region’s favourite community organisation at last month’s Murraylands Business Awards.
The new award category was one of the most popular, attracting 2422 public votes, almost 30 per cent of which went to the winner.
That has been surprising and incredibly humbling, centre managers Jade Porter and Sarah Smith say.
“It’s good to know that the work we do has been acknowledged by our community,” Jade says.
What does a community centre do, anyway?
Murray Bridge Community Centre is an independent not-for-profit organisation which exists to make life better for local people: “to increase the capacity, resilience and wellbeing of our community”.
A particular focus is social connection: making sure everybody has someone to talk to, and nobody lives in isolation.
The centre has a handful of staff supported by more than 30 volunteers, and operates out of two sites, on Beatty Terrace and at the Square on Mary Terrace.
Its funding comes from a wide range of government and community sector sources, and from users of some of the services it offers.
You never know what you might learn or get to do. Photos: Murray Bridge Community Centre.
Most important is the food relief it offers, free of charge and with no questions asked, at its Beatty Terrace site.
“We have a daily bread cart, we get Oz Harvest deliveries and other incredible local organisations that donate to the centre, and we give that away,” Sarah says.
The centre also operates a free shower and laundry for use by locals experiencing homelessness.
For the wider community, the organisation offers:
- Adult community education programs with topics like hospitality and creative writing
- Craft programs: things like wood burning, crochet and mosaics
- Physical activities, including yoga, wellbeing walks and Easy Moves for Active Ageing
- Cooking programs
- A wig library, formerly operated by Soroptimist International Murray Bridge
- A digital mentor who can help with IT issues or advise on how to make the most of your devices
- A Haven community partner who can provide information, referrals and support in the area of family, sexual and domestic violence
- A wellbeing officer who delivers community programs and events
- Weekly Chatty Cafe sessions and men’s barbecues for locals experiencing social isolation
It also hires out spaces to organisations from outside the region who can offer services to local people, such as the Gidget Foundation and Legal Services Commission of SA.
That might sound exhausting enough, but the centre managers have always got new ideas brewing.
Over the next 12 months, they plan to renovate the Square to create a new conference room and office space, with support from Primary Industries and Regions SA; and to start a social seniors program using a grant from the Office for Ageing Well.
The question Sarah and Jade constantly ask themselves, they say, is: “Is there a need, is it being serviced, and can we fill it?”
Both managers have learned a lot about community development over the past 10 years, Sarah says: “not telling the community what they need, but listening to the community about what they want and what we can do to support that”.
Success begins at the grassroots level
Ms Smith and Ms Porter were not able to attend the awards gala, which left board chair Peri Strathearn – also the author of this story and an MC at the awards – to mumble his way through an acceptance speech.
He thanked “absolute legends” Ms Porter and Ms Smith, the centre’s other staff and volunteers.
The conflict of interest was not permitted to influence the nomination or voting process.
Murray Bridge Community Centre was the second-most-nominated organisation in its category, with 31, and attracted the most votes at the finalist stage: more than 700.
For her part, Sarah is just happy that she and Jade, the other staff and volunteers are able to help so many locals.
“I feel like our principle of being a welcoming space for everybody has been … that is what we operate off,” she says.
“Hats off to our volunteers,” Jade says.
“They are the ones doing the hard work on the ground, and feeding back to us about what’s needed in the community.”
- More information, volunteer: Visit Murray Bridge Community Centre from 9am-4pm on weekdays or go to murraybridgecommunitycentre.com.au.
Disclosure: As noted, the author is the chair of the community centre’s board. No conflict of interest was permitted to influence the awards nomination or voting process, or production of this story, in keeping with Murray Bridge News’ editorial policy.
