Mrs Graham and her husband, Garry Graham, bought the Campbell Town church in 2014, and planned to convert the 150-year-old building into a cafe and function centre.

However, despite announcing earlier this year that the church conversion would be complete by October, Mrs Graham said the project had been indefinitely stalled after hitting “so many hurdles”. 

While the function centre may still be operational in the near future, according to Mrs Graham, the cafe may never see the light of day.

“It’s disappointing,” she said.

“The community’s really disappointed and it stops people from getting jobs.”

Mrs Graham said ongoing financial administration issues meant that the project did not meet its expected October opening. 

She also said the designs for the new business were not up to her expectations.

“It’s been three years of so many ups-and-downs – we’ve spent about $175,000 on it and there’s nothing to see for that,” Mrs Graham said.

“It’s caused us so much stress, so we’ll go away and re-evaluate it.”

Northern Midlands Business Association member Leisa Gordon said she was “disappointed” the project was not going ahead.

“It is sad, because the community was excited about the project,” she said.

“It’s a great location and position, and I feel something like that [project] would bring a lot of people to Campbell Town.

“You’re really going to see Campbell Town grow in the next couple of years – people say its in the middle of nowhere, but I say it’s in the middle of everything.”

Mrs Graham will use the next year to concentrate on her autobiography. 

The former New South Wales police officer, and beyondblue ambassador, plans to write about her own mental health issues in the title. 

“It’s a book about mental health issues and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Hopefully it takes you on a bit of a roller coaster and inspire people to start conversations about mental health.”