Wallington clubs receive massive win

WALLINGTON has received a major boost to its sporting infrastructure, receiving a million-dollar cash injection to its main sporting pavilion.

Announced by Bellarine MP Alison Marchant on Monday, an additional $1 million has been provided by the state government to assist Wallington Recreation Reserve with its $4.25 million redevelopment project.

“This funding is ensuring Bellarine sporting facilities are world class – meaning everyone in our community can enjoy the sports they love for years to come.”

The proposed development, home to the Wallington Cricket Club and Bellarine Bears Baseball Club, includes extending the pavilion to accommodate two compliant baseball/cricket change rooms, a shared kitchen/canteen, social space with internal toilets and additional storage.

The redevelopment at Wallington Reserve hopes to address accessibility issues and will include the installation of all gender accessible and ambulant toilets, rectification of narrow doorways and walkways, elimination of steps, and the updating of door handles to ensure accessibility.

The City of Greater Geelong pre-committed $3.25 million in its 2024-25 budget to support this project.

“Thank you to the state government for its contribution to this fantastic project, which will support Wallington Cricket Club’s and Bellarine Bears Baseball Club’s programs to make sport accessible for all,” City of Greater Geelong mayor Trent Sullivan said.

Ms Marchant also announced an additional $50,000 from the Victorian government towards supporting initiatives of both clubs and their respective all-abilities programs to help boost wider community participation.

Bellarine Bears president Damien Carr said a lot of hard work had gone into advocating for an improved pavilion and he was excited to see the long-term benefits following the project’s completion.

“The clubs have worked hard cohesively in the mission of improving our facilities and to reach that objective is a terrific feeling.

“We’ve been campaigning for this since 2017 and the growth of both clubs has been rapid, so we’re outgrowing the space, and the upgrade is sorely needed.

“Also, none of this would be possible for us without the work of former Bears president Daniel Harvey and Matt Connell, who has tirelessly wrote the grant applications over the years. Ross Moreland has also been instrumental from the cricket club.

“I’m just lucky to be the president at this time; they’ve done most of the legwork.”

Wallington Cricket Cub vice president John Dunstan said the club is also thrilled to be successful in obtaining additional funding.

“The club is obviously delighted with the funding announcement and all the efforts done by mayor Sullivan and Ms Marchant. Our rooms were built in 1987 so we’re due for a renovation.

“We provide a great community hub at the reserve and for our efforts in campaigning for additional funding to come to fruition, we couldn’t be happier.”

With funding secured, a concrete timeline for the reserve’s pavilion redevelopment will be created over the next few months.