BOISDALE Recreation Reserve will have its facilities rebuilt and upgraded under an election pledge made by The Nationals.
Incumbent MP and Nationals candidate for Gippsland East, Tim Bull, has promised $1.5 million towards the development should the Liberal-National Coalition form government in November.
The money would go towards refurbishing the existing social rooms and car park facilities at the ground.
Bull met with representatives from Boisdale-Briagolong Football-Netball Club at the reserve on Wednesday to make the announcement.
“To get people into sporting clubs, and get them involved, you need the facilities,” Bull said.
“Boisdale-Briagolong footy club have recently had their change rooms and the like upgraded, but their social rooms have fallen into a state of disrepair.
“They’ve done them up as best they can over the years and they’ve served a great purpose, but it’s time for an upgrade.”
Bull noted the lack of disabled access and the confined, unpaved car park as reasons why the upgrades were necessary.
“The new works will greatly assist the ability to get more cars on-site and more people into the games; but in country communities, you’ve got to create an environment that’s welcoming to families and welcoming to children, so (if) we can upgrade these facilities and give this whole area a facelift, that will obviously be conducive to the club having a very prosperous future,” he said.
Bull’s pledge has been warmly received by the reserve’s committee of management, including secretary Duncan Malcolm.
“It’s a tremendous support, because as a small country club and rec reserve, we recognise that it’s so important for so many young people and their families – and the supporters as much as the players – to have a facility like this, and encourage them; and reward the work that the club puts in, and the rec reserve committee puts in to maintain it,” Mr Malcolm said.
The committee noted that it had been seeking a similar commitment from Wellington Shire Council.
“We hope that if the shire is contributing additional funds to the projects, that they will take consideration of the netball teams, and increase the number of playing courts from one to two,” Mr Malcolm said.
While many of the reserve’s facilities will be modernised, the iconic manual scoreboard will remain the same for now.
“We would like to get that (upgraded) at some stage, but at the moment, we’re very pleased to be able to get some funding come through,” Boisdale-Briagolong FNC president Ryan Evans said. “That will be a future project.”
Mr Bull’s announcement comes with just three weeks to go until polling day on November 26.
The Nationals member was feeling confident about the Coalition’s chances winning the state election, noting that polls between the two major parties had tightened in recent days.
“I think we’ve rolled out some pretty good policies state-wide over the last couple of weeks,” Mr Bull said.
“The investment into health and the halving of the V/Line fares has been very, very popular, along with the public transport concession policy in Melbourne – I think that’s resonating with a lot of families that are struggling with cost of living pressures.”
Mr Bull added that he hoped for “bipartisan commitments” to local projects, noting that Labor’s candidate for Gippsland East had yet to be publicly announced.
“Clubs like Boisdale-Briagolong Footy-Netball Club shouldn’t be sitting down on Saturday night waiting to see who wins the election to know that they’re going to get their upgrade,” he said.
“Both sides of politics should be committing to doing important projects like this in country communities.
“It’s very disappointing that we haven’t got a Labor person on the ground… and I would call on them to come out, get fair dinkum and make some commitments to the region.”
Since Mr Bull’s comments last Wednesday, Stephen Richardson has been officially announced as Labor’s endorsed candidate for Gippsland East.
Please note: The original printed story incorrectly identified Duncan Malcolm as Duncan Marshall, which has been rectified. The Gippsland Times apologies unreservedly for the error.
