By RUSSELL BENNETT
BOOMING numbers of Kooweerup footballers and cricketers will have to make do with their Denham’s Road ground as the sole major oval in the town for the foreseeable future, stretching the facility towards breaking point.
Cardinia Shire Council’s draft masterplan of the Kooweerup Recreation Reserve considers a range of other existing facilities – including some outside of Kooweerup – for future use, but at this stage there are no plans to build a new oval in the town to support the Denhams Road hub.
When approached by the Gazette, Kooweerup Township Committee president Ray Brown said the draft masterplan didn’t take the long-term outlook for the town’s growth into consideration.
Cardinia Shire Council team leader of recreation and facilities Heather Callahan says the draft masterplan outlined the opportunity for user groups of the Denhams Road reserve to use facilities in neighbouring towns such as Cardinia, Cora Lynn and Catani to cope with additional teams.
“It is regular practice for cricket clubs across the shire to share a number of venues, which are not located within their township, given their facility requirements,” Ms Callahan said.
“We have already funded works at Kooweerup Secondary College to provide a new synthetic cricket pitch and are currently in discussion with Kooweerup Primary School to develop their oval so it can be used by the cricket club for training and match days.
“Council also recently completed a number of improvement works at Kooweerup Recreation Reserve, including drainage and irrigation upgrades, new flood lighting installation on the oval and resurfacing of the netball courts, so it can cope with the increased usage.”
But Mr Brown said the suggestion of Kooweerup juniors going to play at Cardinia – a 20-plus kilometre round-trip and not within walking distance of the town – was “absolutely ridiculous”.
“The major problem at the recreation reserve at the moment is a lack of room mainly because the pony club has been allowed to encroach more and more on their area, and this area that they’ve called their cross country area they’ve built yards in,” he said.
“There is room for another oval (on the same site) with some reconfiguration and moving the entrance. You can put another oval in there on the existing space – it would be tight, but you could do it.”
Mr Brown said there was private land available next to the Kooweerup Recreation Reserve site for a second oval, and that he had met with the landowner who, he said, was willing to sell it.
“They (the council) do terrific work there (at the recreation reserve) – anything you want they’ll help you with,” Mr Brown said.
“They provide a lot, but they’ve done that for 100 years and I don’t think their explanations given in the last story in the paper (the Gazette’s 9 March edition) add up.
“In the proposed Caldermeade development, I think there’ll be two ovals. Why do they need two ovals there?… Why haven’t we got two ovals here? There’s a definite lack of commitment, I think, to do anything at Kooweerup.
“Looking at the five-year budget plan, there’s no provision to do anything at Kooweerup. The question I would ask is that if it’s bad now, how is it going to be in five years’ time?”
Ms Callahan said the land next to the Kooweerup Recreation Reserve was considered unsuitable for another oval as it was affected by an ‘inundation overlay’ and was too small. She also said the area used by the pony club wasn’t big enough to meet the requirements for a new oval either.
At the Cardinia Shire Council’s March monthly meeting, Councillor Graeme Moore said he looked forward to the shire finding a place for a second oval, while David Young said “going forward the community has a reasonable expectation of a second oval”.
