Damian Drum (Murray, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The East Shepparton Bowls Club in Shepparton is one of the most vibrant sporting clubs of the Goulburn Valley. The club is a completely self-funded, privately-run club with 120 members, who all get together and make sure their club is vibrant and works well. They have competition pennant bowls and they run numerous social events for members and local community non-members.

They have a project on the way at the moment that is going to cost $1.2 million. They need to put a roof over two of their greens to create an all-weather bowls structure. They already have $600,000 of their own money and the local council, the City of Greater Shepparton, has put together $30,000 to assist them with this project. We are currently waiting for the state government, leading into an election, to pledge their support for the East Shepparton Bowls Club, because this is going to be, well and truly, a fantastic project. We are also looking for federal support and we are working towards trying to see if we can get federal support, but firstly we will need to see if the state will get on board.

We are also looking to see if we can use this as a way of honouring one of their legendary bowlers, Ray Henderson. Ray passed away last year from an illness he contracted while travelling, and it would be great to have this structure named in his honour.

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