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Central Victorian sports clubs have shared a widespread need for improved amenities to support female participation in sport.
Their comments came after facilities at Bendigo’s premier sporting venue, the Queen Elizabeth Oval, were labelled “primitive.”
Castlemaine Football Netball Club secretary Lorelle Huntly said the rate of female participation in the club had outstripped the pace at which amenities could be upgraded or constructed.
There is a portable at the club’s home ground, Camp Reserve, but Mrs Huntly said female members often used the social rooms to change.
Most of the female footballers in the club’s under 12 team and youth team go home after the game to shower.
“If we want to keep these teams going, we have to provide the facilities,” Mrs Huntly said.
She said the club was better off than many in that it did have the portable and the social rooms, while others had nothing, but an upgrade for the widely-used facilities would be ideal.
“We are continually putting in grants for a second netball court and change rooms,” she said.
Sports Focus program manager Shelley Mulqueen said more needed to be done to increase female participation in sport.
“One of the main barriers to that are [whether] the environments women come into welcoming and inclusive,” she said.
She said people getting changed in cars or toilets or going straight home after the game to clean up affected their experience.
“It means they are not engaged in life at the club as well because they will come and they will go… it is important to keep that social aspect at the club,” Ms Mulqueen said.
She encouraged clubs to be strategic about their proposals for works and think of universal design.
“Not necessarily women’s and men’s facilities, but facilities anyone can use and feel comfortable in within that environment,” Ms Mulqueen said.
Minister for Sport John Eren said women and girls were joining sport in record numbers, particularly in the regions.
“It's true that they don't always enjoy the same facilities as their male counterparts, but we're addressing that,” he said.
“Our $10 million fund for women's change rooms is the single biggest investment in women's participation in sport by an Australian state government.”
Member for Bendigo West Maree Edwards said it was up to local councils to apply for a share of that funding.