Workout for free at Doug Dean

THE home of sporting groups like the Ballarat Highlanders Rugby Union Club and the VRI Delacombe Cricket Club now has an outdoor gym setup.

The Doug Dean Reserve’s newest addition called the Delacombe Outdoor Community Gym is aimed at giving people access to free on-site exercise equipment.

Member for Wendouree, Juliana Addison, opened the facilities and said the equipment will help people keep active while relieving cost of living pressures.

“[For families] with cost-of-living pressures and interest rates going up you’re looking for spending you can cut and often it’s stuff for yourself,” she said.

“Gym memberships might go, so to be able to create this for the community is really important.”

The outdoor gym is made up of three outdoor landings dotted about the reserve’s 1.5-kilometre walking track featuring equipment such as a ladder rack, a multi-bench, gorilla bars pull-up bars, and multiple workout stations.

The site was funded with $72,000 from the State Government and $325,000 from the City of Ballarat.

With the facilities installed about two weeks ago, City of Ballarat mayor Cr Des Hudson said the equipment will be a much-used asset for the reserve.

“The first one at Vickers Street, the Karen Overington Reserve, that’s now been in for well over 10 years,” he said.

“That one was hugely successful. We’ve got the ones down at the lake and now Power Park. They do attract people in the space.”