The UK rockers, brought their Gentlemen of the Road Stopover show to Dungog in 2012 and won the hearts of the small rural community. 

Last year, after hearing the town had been devastated by the April 2015 flood, the band arranged for 400 double passes to be made available to residents, who had helped with the disaster, to travel to Sydney for the band’s performance at The Domain.

However, Dungog Mayor Harold Johnston approached the band’s management to ask whether a more lasting token for town could also be delivered.

“It was a very generous gift in the first place that they took all those people down to their show,” Cr Johnston said.

“I just said, ‘How about something a bit more permanent for the rest of the town?’.

The band promptly put up $27,239 to be spent on public works for Dungog. 

The money has been split up between four projects. The Dungog Soccer club received the majority of the money for a set of soccer goalposts, replacing the 20 year old posts with fully compliant ones, which cost $6000.

The lights at the oval were also upgraded for future night games. The contribution was $9000 toward the project, which cost $15,000 – local tradies contributed the rest.  The new lights will also allow teams to train later into the night. Cr Johnston said it was right the soccer club benefited because Mumford & Sons were big soccer fans.

Money was also spent on completion of the showground kiosk, which was demolished because it was riddled with termites. A $7000 contribution was added to the funds, including money from Southern Phone.

The showground committee will now fix a plaque to the new kiosk commemorating not only Mumford & Sons generosity, but also their memorable performance at Dungog Showground on October 20, 2012.

The remaining money, $5239, was spent on three new park benches which have been installed in town. Each park bench has the band’s name engraved into the wood.  

The band has been notified about what the money was spent on, and supplied with costings.