Demolition to begin soon on Jan Juc SLSC rebuild

ANTICIPATION is growing about the Jan Juc Surf Life Saving Club’s new clubhouse, with demolition works on the existing building expected to begin in the very near future.

The club has relocated all of its furniture, equipment and memorabilia and is awaiting a final site assessment before the heavy machinery moves in and starts work on the $5 million project.

Jan Juc SLSC president Aaron Green said everything inside the clubhouse had “either gone to God or gone to storage”.

“We’ve got a very friendly club member who has given us space in one of his farm sheds at Bellbrae, so that’s worked out well.

“Hopefully we’re back in here by November. The project program says September, so I’m saying November. As long as we’re in by December, it doesn’t affect any of our operations.

“The demolition’s pretty straightforward; it’s just going to end up being a big hole here. The only thing that remains will be the patrol tower up the top.”

The new clubhouse will be the same height but deeper into the ground and slightly wider, making it about one and a half times the size of the original building.

Jan Juc SLSC is very close to appointing a contractor for the works.

Over the summer of 2018/19, the club will run lifesaving patrols and store its patrol equipment out of two containers on the grassed area near Carnarvon Avenue.

The project is being funded by $2 million from each of the federal and state governments and another $1 million from the Jan Juc SLSC, and Corangamite federal member Sarah Henderson made a ceremonial hole in one of the exterior walls during a visit to the clubhouse last week.

“This has been a very long journey and I’m absolutely delighted that construction is about to begin any day,” she said.

“I want to congratulate the Jan Juc SLSC and the extraordinary number of volunteers that worked on this project for such a long period of time.

“We’re really, really proud to be supporting this community in this incredible project.”