Wonthaggi netball’s $1.536 million pavilion finally opens.

Netballers were still taking the court despite the rain on Saturday, June 20, at the Wonthaggi Recreation Reserve, while in the background, officials, volunteers, and community members all gathered inside the reserve’s brand-new netball pavilion for its official opening.

The new facility was delivered through a partnership between the Victorian Government, Bass Coast Shire Council, and local user groups like Wonthaggi Power and the Wonthaggi and District Netball Association, and it’s set to help continue the growth of netball in Wonthaggi and the surrounding district.

The pavilion includes three change rooms with amenities, an umpire change room, accessible toilet and change space, medical room, office, kitchenette, multi-purpose space, canteen, baby change facilities, storage and an undercover spectator viewing area overseeing the courts.

Bass Coast Mayor Cr Brett Tessari said the facility would help secure netball’s future at the reserve.

“These fantastic facilities will help keep netball growing for a long time to come,” he said.

Member for Bass Jordan Crugnale was also present, officially opening the pavilion on behalf of Minister for Community Sport, Ros Spence.

“It’s a really important space for both the Wonthaggi and District Netball Association, and the Wonthaggi Power,” she said.

“It will help deliver something long overdue. Modern female family facilities that will help take local netball totally to the next level.”

Ms Crugnale also used the opening to announce a further $222,000 through the Country Football and Netball Program for lighting upgrades.

Wonthaggi Power netball operations representative Bec Farrell said the club was already seeing massive growth in its juniors.

“We’ve gone from having under 30 juniors to over 80 in the last year, so I’m really proud and excited to be working with everyone to really push our juniors and improve our club,” she said.

“One of the big pluses for our netball girls is the change rooms and the showers, especially on a day like today. They are going to get used.

“We feel very lucky, and we’re very grateful.”

Wonthaggi and District Netball Association president Virginia Hunt said the new pavilion is a major step forward for the association, which now has more than 100 community players and five clubs involved.

“It means a modern facility for our players, umpires, coaches, team managers and families to use each week,” Ms Hunt said.

“It’s modern, it’s got all the facilities that we don’t have, and it’s just going to make life a little more comfortable for our players every week.”

Ms Hunt said the association is expecting further growth next year, as many teams are already indicating that they’ll be entering more teams.

“More teams, more people, means that we can operate out of this just smoothly, better operations,” she said.

“We can get our canteen up and running, we can get our scoring done efficiently. Players will have a clean and safe facility to use.”

Ms Hunt said the project had been “in the pipeline for a very, very, very long time” with many discussions taking place over the years between council, Netball Victoria, the state government and local representatives from the netball community.

She emphasised that the new facility was much more than just a building.

“Today, from an association perspective, is much more than bricks and mortar. It’s about celebrating the history and the people that have come to make today what it is,” she said.

Netball Victoria Eastern Region Manager Judi Buhagiar, who is retiring at the end of the year after more than 12 years in the role, said the Wonthaggi and District Netball Association had previously been “on the brink” before recently seeing strong growth.

“They’ve gone from nothing to over 100 players in no time, from October last year to the start of this year,” she said.

“We knew that if we built something that was attractive and looked spectacular like this, the players would then come.”