Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I would like to tell the House about two wonderful new projects that have just opened in my electorate of Deakin. The first is the Glen Park Sports Pavilion. Glen Park is located in Bayswater North, a suburb that is often overlooked when it comes to infrastructure; a suburb that does not really have a centre to it. So a facility like a new football club pavilion—at a ground which until only very recently had nothing—is a great leap forward for our local community. This is a $500,000 federally funded project and it means that the community centre, which used to have to share some of its rooms with a football club, now does not. Even better, it means the community centre does not have to share the football club’s mud. That was a big problem, because the rooms that were used as change rooms on a weekend were also used as rooms for disabled artists and others who used the community centre during the week. Now, the two have been separated. They are still close by and are good neighbours, but they can now do things with their own space that they could not do before.

The new pavilion has a brand-new canteen and includes disabled amenities, storage rooms, a kiosk and covered veranda areas to protect spectators. These spaces enable the clubs that are based there, East Ringwood Football Club and South Croydon Cricket Club, to provide a complete service to their members and spectators at club events. Again, that is a great thing for the local area. Even better, this was an election campaign promise from 2007—yet another promise delivered locally, in full, by the Rudd Labor government.

I also want to take the time to inform the House of the upgraded facilities at Dorset Golf Course in Croydon, with money under round 1 of the Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program. Dorset Golf Course is used by over 60,000 people a year and the federal government, through the RLCIP, put in $295,000. This has allowed the clubrooms to be rebuilt and enlarged. That included putting cladding on the external sides of them. The roof has been removed and redone. The building interior has been completely gutted, redesigned and fully renovated, so it is now a usable meeting space as well as a base for people setting out to play a round of golf. There is a new kitchenette inside and also new toilets. The driving range has also been redone. This is a great project for Croydon. The golf course there has been around for many years. It is run by the council and recommended far and wide. Local golfers will continue to use it but now in far greater comfort. It was built many years ago on an old tip site and it served many people in that time. It is certainly now a much better facility. It was my great pleasure to be at the opening of the Dorset Golf Course on 9 June.