Cut stone, blue water, and a hall that fills at dusk
For three generations this shed squared limestone for half the district. The gantry rail is still bolted to the ceiling and the timber templates still hang where the cutters left them. Under all that: a dining room, five card tables and absolutely no money in play. Nothing is wagered, no cash prize exists, and there is no online room — it is a physical venue or it is nothing.
Three generations of cutters, then a hall
The family who worked this shed squared blocks for churches, bridges and half the shopfronts on this street. When the last of them retired the tools went to the museum and the building went to seed.
We took it on with the gantry rail intact, the dust chute intact, and about two hundred timber templates hanging on nails along the north wall. All of it stayed exactly where it was.
The hall seats fifty-two to eat and five tables to play, and we will not push it further. Limestone walls throw sound around beautifully right up until there are too many people in front of them.
Five tables
Felt over sawn stone bases, counters that score points and nothing else.
One long table
Fourteen seats, shared, and strangers are seated together on purpose.
Two hundred templates
Still on their nails. Please do not take them down.
Five tables under the gantry rail
The card hall is the old cutting floor, so the ceiling is high and the walls are raw stone. Games are social ones — five hundred, canasta, crib, a friendly hold'em when a table wants one — and none of them costs anything to join.
Counters are lent for the evening and taken back at close. They record points, they cannot be bought or exchanged, and there is nothing behind them: no pool, no pot, no prize of any description.
Somebody from the floor is always in the hall. They will teach a game from scratch, settle a rules argument, and quietly reseat a table when the numbers go lopsided.
Four walk-in tables
No list, no booking, no charge. Take a chair if one is free.
One reserved table
Held by phone for up to six, released fifteen minutes late.
Sunday teaching
From five, free, and no one minds how slow you are.
What the hall gets asked most
Is there a version of this I can play online?
There is not. Limestone Hall is a building on Commercial Street East with no app, no account and no online room. Every game is played in person, here.
What are the counters worth?
Nothing at all. They score the evening. They cannot be bought, cannot be cashed, and no prize pool, rake or cash prize exists behind them.
Do you have poker machines?
None whatsoever. This building has never held one and is not going to.
Why does your start time move?
Because it is tied to the blue hour on the lake, which shifts through the year. The board out front carries tonight's time, chalked that afternoon.
Should I reserve?
For dinner on Friday or Saturday, yes. For a card table, only if you want the reserved one — the other four are walk-in.
Can I bring a teenager to eat?
No. The venue is licensed and adults only from the front door back.
Where the hall is and when it opens
17 Commercial Street East, Mount Gambier SA 5290
+61 8 8724 9081 · hall@southernplays.com
Thursday to Tuesday, 4pm – midnight
Everything from inside a hundred kilometres
Rock lobster off the coast when the season allows, beef from the volcanic country north of town, and cheese from a dairy whose owner drinks here on Thursdays and complains about our ageing fridge.
The board is written at three and photographed for the window, because a printed menu would be a lie by the following week. Nine or ten dishes, and the vegetable ones are not an afterthought.
Wines are all from the red country an hour east: cabernet that tastes of the soil it grew in, and two whites we keep because people ask. Four taps, all regional, one of them always a dark beer regardless of the weather.
From the water
Rock lobster in season, and one fish that changes weekly.
From the paddock
Beef aged on site, cut thick, served with almost nothing.
From an hour east
Cabernet by the glass, plus two whites for the doubters.
Stone, felt, templates, street
What we ask of everyone in the hall
- Over-18s only, the dining room included. There is no under-age section and no arrangement we can make for one.
- Counters are lent, not sold. They score points, hold no monetary value and are collected at close.
- No stake, no buy-in, no side bet, no pot: no money is put on any hand played in this building.
- We keep no poker machines and never have, and there is no online play — no app, no account, no site to log into.
- The templates on the north wall are historic and fragile; look, photograph, but leave them on their nails.
- Service stops for anyone who has clearly had enough, and we will ring a car for them without being asked.
Six nights, one closed day
| Day | Doors | In the hall |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday | 4pm – 12am | Cheese night, the dairy sends whatever is ready |
| Friday | 4pm – 12am | Blue hour sitting, all five tables laid |
| Saturday | 3pm – 12am | Long table seated together at seven, book ahead |
| Sunday | 3pm – 10pm | Teaching table from 5pm, free, four seats |
| Monday | 4pm – 11pm | Quiet hall, short board, no reservations needed |
| Tuesday | 4pm – 11pm | Canasta from 6pm, two tables held |
| Wednesday | Closed | Stone dust, deliveries and paperwork |
How an evening moves through the hall
- Blue hourDoors and first sitting, timed to the lake, chalked that afternoon
- An hour afterThe hall opens up, five tables laid, counters handed out
- Two hours afterKitchen at full tilt, the long table seated together
- MidnightCounters back in the drawer, templates get the lights turned off
Our start time is not fixed. It follows the hour the lake turns — some weeks that is half past four, in midsummer it is closer to eight — and the board by the templates gets rewritten every afternoon to match.
A seat at the long table, or a chair at a short one
The phone is answered from two in the afternoon. Say how many of you there are and whether it is dinner, cards, or the pair, and we will write it on the sheet.
Ring the hall