A long-awaited upgrade to female facilities at the QEO was announced on Monday, with new unisex change rooms adjacent to the netball courts expected to be ready for the 2019 season.
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The $845,000 project will include two change rooms, unisex toilets and showers, a first aid and baby change facility and an umpires room.
Long-term campaigner for improved female facilities at the sporting venue, Cath Robertson, said the new amenity would be “awesome”.
Related: QEO netball facilities fury
“This is major, it's very exciting,” she said.
“I'm really proud that the (Bendigo) council took us seriously, initially it was a bit of a battle with the location, but we got there in the end.”
The Bendigo Advertiser was part of an extensive campaign to improve what has been described as “primitive” facilities at the sports ground.
The change rooms – jointly funded by Bendigo council ($685,000), the state government ($100,000) and Sandhurst Football Netball Club ($60,000) – will be used by more than 100 people during busy Saturdays in the winter months, Ms Robertson said.
The new facilities, which will allow players to access running water at the courts and change in comfort after the game, will hopefully have a snowball effect on improving female facilities across the region, Ms Robertson said.
Announcing the state government’s funding investment to the project, sport minister John Eren said: “It’s been a long hard struggle, but we’re here now.”
Bendigo mayor Margaret O’Rourke said for so long, women in the region had to put up with “pretty ordinary, or non-existent” facilities.
“To be able to have such good facilities for people to use is very important,” Cr O’Rourke said.
Representative junior netballers and female football teams could also use the facilities when built, making the amenity not just for Bendigo, but the wider region.
The facility will be built in a vacant space at the back of the Bendigo Aquatic Centre, with construction expected to begin in October.
Funding boost for hockey complex
Bendigo’s hockey complex will have a new pavilion to match its modern playing facilities following a joint announcement by the state and local government on Monday.
A $4.95 million facility, which will complement the existing pitch and another currently being built, will be jointly funded by Bendigo council ($4.1 million) the state government ($650,000) and Hockey Central Victoria ($200,000).
First recommended in 2004, the pavilion will cater for seven clubs, with a combined 800 members.
The pavilion will have six unisex change rooms, two umpires change rooms (with drug testing capacity), public amenities, social space and elevated viewing decks, kiosk and kitchen and a first aid room, among others.
Hockey Central Victoria president David Salter said, when completed, the pavilion and the two high-quality pitches would be capable of hosting top-level hockey events.
A second hockey pitch is currently under construction at the complex.
In a sporting environment dominated by football, soccer, cricket and netball, Mr Salter said the facilities would encourage youngsters to try the sport.
“This surface is as good as it gets,” he said.
Bendigo West MP Maree Edwards said hockey was a growing sport in central Victoria and young people would benefit most from the facilities being created.
Castlemaine gets new pavilion
Meanwhile, Castlemaine didn’t miss out on a day of funding announcements, with the state government putting $100,000 toward new female-friendly facilities at Wesley Hill Recreation Reserve.
The reserve, home to the Castlemaine Junior Football Club, the Castlemaine and District Netball Association and Castlemaine Cycling Club, will get a new pavilion with flexible unisex change rooms, unisex umpires change rooms, a first aid room and kiosk, and storage facilities for all three sporting codes.
Minister Eren said: “Grassroots clubs are the heart of the Castlemaine community, with footy and netball clubs here going back more than 150 years.”
Ms Edwards said the government was giving the Wesley Hill community the safe, modern and inclusive facilities it deserved.