Pyrenees councillors say they have no money to fix the region’s collapsing recreation facilities, as local bowling greens miss out on major tournaments and sporting pavilions crumble.
Roland Currie, at the Landsborough and District Bowling Club, said it’s “getting harder and harder these days to get any help regarding sporting venues”.
The impact is felt throughout the whole community.
“For us small towns, we’ve already lost the pub, and we’ve lost everything else in town,” Currie said. “It’s the last thing for men’s health, women’s health, everyone to gather and chat.”
“We’re losing major tournaments coming to town because you can’t bowl on the green. That brings money and people to town”.
What happened: While endorsing a routine update to its 10-year asset plan, councillors Simon Tol and Damian Ferrari, as well as Douglas Gowans, the Director of Assets and Development Services, openly conceded the shire cannot afford to renew ageing recreation facilities.
“We have a lot of work to do and limited resources to do it,” Councillor Ferrari said, adding major works on larger sporting and recreation facilities are typically funded by external grants and “untied funding” given without strict instruction for use.
What people said: Councillor Megan Phelan told the Brolga the ongoing closure of shared spaces risks towns “disappearing altogether because there's nowhere for the community to come together."
🗣️ “It’s crucial to have these gathering places, to exercise, to socialise,” she said, with more needed than just “painting and minor repairs”.
🗣️ “For sporting events or coming together in the public hall, the swimming pools. We need to help them maintain what is pretty basic infrastructure.”
What next: Councillor Phelan said there needs to be more backing for these facilities.
“I think it is a very unrealistic expectation that these tiny communities with limited resources are able to fundraise to do major works to some of the facilities,” she said. “It’s unreasonable to expect communities to cover this.”