BENDIGO'S council wants to demolish an old tennis pavilion and football clubrooms to make more space for people using Rosalind Park and the Queen Elizabeth Oval.
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The City of Greater Bendigo has lodged an application with its own planning department to demolish the Kel Pell Tennis Pavilion along with South Bendigo Football Netball Club's old clubrooms.
Both sit at the Barnard Street end of Rosalind Park and the council says they are not needed now that Bendigo Lawn Tennis Association and South Bendigo have moved elsewhere.
Both buildings were for a time central to sporting life in the city.
Builders finished the pavilion in 1957 and it overlooked tennis courts now abandoned in favour of Nolan Street's Bendigo Regional Tennis Centre.
The council's application makes no mention of the 2026 Commonwealth Games but that event's lawn bowls venue happens to be next door.
The Advertiser understands the timing of the demolition plans have nothing to do with the Commonwealth Games.
The council's application only references a 2014 Rosalind Park masterplan plan envisioning that area as parkland and open space.
That said, the masterplan was penned long before it occurred to anyone to host a Commonwealth Games in Bendigo.
It is too early to know if anything in the masterplan will be rendered obsolete as plans for 2026 take shape, but back in July a council spokesperson said it would remain a good starting point for long term thinking.
Below: slide the bar to compare the site as it is to what the 2014 council plan envisaged.
South Bendigo FNC's old clubrooms were built in 1970. They overlook the Queen Elizabeth Oval.
The club now has facilities at the Kennington Recreation Reserve.
The council also wants to demolish a toilet block attached to a heritage-listed structure at the oval.
It says none of the buildings it would tear down are of heritage significance.
The council's planning department is assessing the planning applications.
The Barnard Street buildings are not the only ones targeted for demolition in recent years.
The Bendigo Hawks Aquatic Swim Club's rooms next to the Faith Leech Aquatic Centre were knocked down in 2019 to help open up more of the Rosalind Park precinct.
The council is working on plans for the body of water it overlooks, which is the last remnants of the Bendigo Municipal Baths.
Once a public swimming hole, the pond is now frequented by wildlife like ibises.
The council is developing a $3 million plan to rip down fences and create "an attractive urban park with a lakeside look track and boardwalk".
It plans to advertise and award tenders in early 2023.
Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
