Mirboo North still waiting on gym rebuild after a decade of asking
The town’s only indoor sporting facility has no disability access and cannot host competition basketball.
MIRBOO North’s only indoor sports facility is still waiting on a rebuild after close to a decade of campaigning by the town’s two schools and its sporting clubs.
State Nationals leader Danny O’Brien raised the Mirboo North Gymnasium in state parliament again this month, renewing his call on Deputy Premier and Education Minister Gabrielle Williams to fund the project.
“I have raised this issue repeatedly over many years and written to multiple ministers, but Mirboo North is still waiting for action,” Mr O’Brien said.
Mr O’Brien said the gym did not meet current sporting standards.
“Unfortunately, the facility does not meet current sporting standards, lacks adequate run-off areas and the change rooms and toilets are well past their use-by date,” he said.
The gym was built in the late 1970s, half-funded by community donations and half by the Department of Education, and remains the only indoor sporting space in town.
It has no access for people with disabilities, competition basketball cannot be played there because the court has no run-off, and asbestos has had to be removed.
Mr O’Brien said the building was still in heavy use by both schools and by basketball, football and netball, yoga and martial arts groups.
He said Community Sport Minister Ros Spence understood the need, having visited the site with him after the storms that hit Mirboo North in February 2024.
“Ultimately, we need the Minister for Education to get behind this project and ensure it progresses,” Mr O’Brien said.
“The students, sporting clubs and wider community deserve a modern, safe facility that meets today’s standards.
“It is time for the Labor government to get on board and deliver the funding needed to make it happen.”
State Labor MP Tom McIntosh met Year 12 students at the school last year and gave a public commitment in a member’s statement in August to keep pushing for the money.
“I am really committed to walking alongside them on working towards getting the gym funded for generations to come,” Mr McIntosh told parliament.
In June he welcomed almost $200,000 for Mirboo North Secondary College under the state’s Planned Maintenance Program, and said he would keep working with the school to improve it.
That money covers repairs and maintenance rather than the gym rebuild the community is after.
