Contractors spent much of this week clearing out asbestos and rubbish from the ruins of the club that burnt down on Tuesday, December 3.

The fire devastated members of the community who, for many, the club was one of their only recreational outlets.

Club president Peter Wilkinson said a community meeting would be held in the near future with club members for ideas and feedback on rebuilding the venue.

“We’ve had the site cleared, that’s probably the first major stage in the rebuild,” Mr Wilkinson said.

“Once we have our site back we can actually try and start the slow process of the rebuild. We have done some initial plans from a board point of view, but we want to go to the members and keep them involved.

”We’re going to have some sort of general meeting to involve our local members and and see what they want to happen with the club and if they have any input we can take it on board.”

Mr Wilkinson said one of the major projects to get underway was the bowling green which he described as in a “state of disrepair” since the blaze.

“It’s going to be a major challenge to bring it back into a playable state, it is the sort of thing that would take some time.”

Mr Wilkinson said the club was thankful to the NSW Bowls industry for their support with fundraisers at the Tamworth City and West Tamworth Bowling Club to show their support.

There’d also been offers of furniture from a bowls club in the Maitland district.

“We’re insured, but is all very much in the finalisation stage and we don’t know what the figures look like,” he said.

“Hopefully we will know in the next couple of weeks.

“We’ve had a lot of people offer assistance in all sorts of forms; dollars or labor or to have some type of fundraiser.

“It’s all been very helpful and it makes our job a little bit easier to try and get back to where we were six months ago as quickly as we can.”

At the time of the fire, investigators believed the blaze was sparked by an electrical fault. The building was believed to have been at least 55-years-old.