Goolgowi's new mental health counselling service has opened up, in the refurbished old council chambers

Marie Clarke has been at the forefront of campaigns for better mental health support in Griffith, after a spate of mental-health related tragedy struck the town in 2020.

Her most recent project - a refurbishment of the old council chambers at 5 Stipa Street - has opened it's doors to the public today. The building now houses a dedicated counselling room, along with other rooms whose purpose is yet to be decided.

Ms Clarke hopes that the space can be put to a range of uses for the community, such as hosting community nurses for immunisations, visits from veterinarians, or providing a playgroup for Goolgowi's youngest residents and their parents.

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For now though, the counselling room will host a number of options for people needing support. Griffith AMS psychologist Lachlan Foster will be setting up in the room every second Tuesday beginning on April 14.

Ms Clarke said that she was just beginning, but was glad to have the room up and running. She's hoping one of the other rooms in the building can be used as a second counselling room, with a main central space for community purposes.

"We got this all renovated. It will be used as a community centre as well," she said.

"Counselling starts next week. There's more rooms that I've just got to finish off."

She emphasised that the community rooms would be off-limits while counselling sessions were happening, for privacy and confidentiality reasons. Appointments are also not handled by Ms Clarke, to ensure anonymity for the entire process.

It's the same reason the building has no signage marking it as a counselling service.

"We don't really have anywhere in the town to have meetings unless you use the CWA, so this will be good ... If all goes well with the counselling and the demand is there, the goal is to build a purpose-built counselling centre out here and this will just be a community centre."

"The mental health and the counselling is the main thing."

She emphasised that the room was there to provide service to everybody, not just those from the immediate Goolgowi area.

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Carrathool Shire council representatives Nadia Clark and Judith Collier both attended the opening, saying they were excited to see what the building would be used for in the future.

The building and land is being offered to Ms Clarke by the Carrathool Shire Council, but funding is still short. The building's refurbishment was partly funded by the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, but for now, Ms Clarke is short of money to provide extra quality-of-life improvements like landscaping.

"I'm going to look into more grants and fundraisers," she assured.

Ms Clarke thanked a few of her friends and supporters that had helped bring the project to life like Member for Murray Helen Dalton, Carrathool Shire council, and the counsellors who had joined.

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