Multi-million dollar facility off to good start

Community making good use of newly opened Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre

Mount Gambier’s Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre has passed its first two tests – the soft opening last month when the community had its first chance to tour the $62million dollar facility and at the beginning of this month, the hosting of its first major event, the 2023 SA Country Swimming Championships.

Belgravia Leisure is the manager of the facility and South Australian manager Catherine Foreman said it has been a case of so far, so good.

“The preview weekend at Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre was a resounding success with over 4000 community members coming through for a swim session or centre tour,” Ms Foreman said.

“Overall the feedback has been extremely positive and it was wonderful to see the pride the community had in the new facility, their excitement regarding all the opportunities of the facility and their joy in watching families utilise the aquatic areas.”

Leading into the soft opening and the swimming championships, staff recruitment and training had been the focus of Belgravia and that looms as an ongoing challenge.

“Belgravia Leisure have provided Lifeguard, Swim School and First Aid courses for staff as well as plenty of internal training sessions and competencies, which has made for a really positive training experience for all those involved,” Ms Foreman said.

“All staff are required to do a number of modules that help keep staff and the community safe as well as provide a great experience for the community.”

Opportunities still exist for lifeguard and swim instructor positions with more information available at https:// belgravialeisure.com.au/simplythe-best-summer-jobs/ The search is also still on for more group fitness instructors and gym instructors.

“Our Health Club numbers continue to grow and exceed expectations – it certainly is fantastic that the community is making use of the facility,” Ms Foreman said.

“On the whole we have a strong workforce of local staff and they are settling in really well – as we progress we are sure that we will advertise more roles at the site.”

The aquatic area is understandably a hive of activity every day at the moment, with the GOswim learn to swim program also having started on Monday, while the fitness areas are also proving popular and the group fitness timetable continues to expand as we move from holiday mode but to our usual routines.

“We also expect that further user groups and programs will come online over the next few months as the second courts area become available,” Ms Foreman said. Also on the agenda at the moment is liaising with local sporting and community groups to entice them to make use of the state-of-the-art facility.

Our conversations with local sporting groups have been extremely positive,” Ms Foreman said.

“We are really impressed with the positive attitude each group has taken to having such a quality facility for the community, and they are excited about the opportunities it will provide each of them to grow their sports.

We really look forward to these groups beginning to operate from Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre in early 2023 and are also excited to see how they will grow.”

With more than 400 competitors and their families on sit for four days from January 5-8, Wulanda has stepped up to and passed its first genuine test.

“Whilst it is still early days in the review, as a whole we do know the championships would have had a great tourism benefit for the community and it was also a wonderful opportunity to promote Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre across the wider region,” Ms Foreman said.

“Certainly this venue will be a key location for events in Mount Gambier and we anticipate a number of announcements in the coming months.” OPEN FOR BUSINESS: (Top left) Swaye, Tully & Harper Lindner check out the Wulanda gym & (bottom left) Olympian Madi Wilson with Vaughn Stratford at this month’s SA Country Swimming Championships.