By Kyra Gillespie
After years of sharing amenities with neighbouring sporting clubs, the Bunyip Strikers will soon have a place to call home.
A $2.1 million contract has been awarded to Insight Construction Group Pty Ltd to construct a new pavilion for the soccer club.
The state-of-the-art facility, due for completion in 2020, will include female friendly change rooms, a gym, a first aid room, community and social spaces, meeting rooms for community groups and a community kitchen and garden.
Bunyip Soccer Club president Adrian Gatti said it would be a big change for the family-friendly club, which has no amenities of its own.
Currently, the club is structuring its home games around the Bunyip Football Club because they share facilities, and there are no toilets.
“We’ve basically shared facilities with the football, tennis and netball club to house umpires on game days and use the showers occasionally,” Mr Gatti said.
“For the last 10 years we’ve been operating out of portable buildings using stuff that’s been donated or purchased through grants by our volunteers.
“Soccer is the fastest growing sport in the country, so it’s good to see the council’s jumped on board to make way for future growth.”
The new pavilion will be built at the Bunyip Reserve with a $2.76 million budget, funded in part through a $900,000 federal boost through the Building Better Regions Fund.
The project is one that Mayor Cr Graeme Moore has been advocating for years as a Port Ward councillor.
Fellow Port Ward Cr Ray Brown said the project has been one of Cr Moore’s “babies.”
“This really is something exciting – to see this facility come to fruition after all these years,” Cr Moore said.
“This club is in desperate need for these facilities and it has been one of my main aspirations as a councillor to see it come alive.
“We owe a lot to Russell Broadbent, who helped council secure a $900,000 grant towards the project.”
