The club’s manager Grant Cummings said the insurance process was the cause of the delay.

“The insurance companies delayed looking at the claim because of the earthquake in New Zealand and the floods in Queensland,” he said.

The board of directors is expected to decide how to handle the club’s memberships at the next AGM in coming weeks.

Mr Cummings said correspondence had not been sent to members since when the fire occurred as nothing significant had happened.

“Up until now there hasn’t been a stage,” he said.

“We’ve just been in limbo with the insurance.”

Sydney based company Network Refurbishments is completing the work at the site and local business Smith’s Earthmoving is involved in the initial stages.

Mr Cummings expects the refurbishment work to be opened up for tenders from more local based tradespeople later in construction.

“When we get to that stage that’s when you do a tender on it,” he said.

Few changes will be made to the restored building except for the front which will be altered to blend in with existing buildings in the main street.

“It’s been designed with the main street to fit in with the awnings and the heritage façade,” he said.

“It was a requirement of council and we’ve probably done even more than we what they wanted.”

Internally the club’s restaurant will be in a different position, Mr Cummings said, and the interior will also be more open-plan than it was in the past.

The auditorium of the club was relatively unscathed by the fire except for smoke damage and will be repainted and have minor work to bring it up to current building code standards.

Mr Cummings expects work on the auditorium and the Nangar Bar to be finished in time for the Showgirl Zone championships to be held in February.

The rest of the work, to rebuild the front half of the building and refurbish the smoke and water damaged back half of the club will take longer depending on the weather.

Mr Cummings said the club was fortunate to be able to save most of the RSL memorabilia after the fire.

“There were only a couple of things we lost,” he said.

“It’s all been sent away to be restored.”

RSL plaques on the front of the building were removed before the demolition and will be replaced with the building work is complete.