The aim to build a new undercover green at the club’s Zurcas Lane facility — a campaign the late Ray Henderson initially spearheaded — will finally come to fruition after years of hard work behind the scenes, with $500000 granted to the Goulburn Valley Bowls Division outfit from the Liberal-National Government’s Community Sport Infrastructure Program.
Federal Member for Murray Damian Drum was on hand, along with City of Greater Shepparton Mayor Kim O’Keeffe, to announce the exciting news to dozens of ecstatic bowlers.
‘‘This is going to take this club to another level,’’ Drum said.
‘‘The application they have put forward has been unsuccessful on two or three other occasions, (but) this is a high priority project for the city of Shepparton and it’s great the Federal Government has been able to deliver for the East Shepparton Bowls Club.
‘‘(They) deserve this because they are coming to the table with $600000 of their own money, it’s an enormous contribution from the bowls club and so therefore we think it right that we do everything we can to help this club because they’re very much helping themselves.’’
The grant money will combine with the club’s own contribution to make Henderson’s vision a reality.
‘‘Ultimately if they want to bowl 24 hours a day they can, if they want to bowl 12 months of the year they can, so that’s what we’ve been able to deliver and we’re just delighted that we’ve been able to help,’’ Drum said.
‘‘(Ray) was the first one who walked into my office trying to see if they could get government help. He was a great leader of this community, not just this bowls club, and we miss him dearly.
‘‘His advocacy has certainly gone a long way to making sure that this project will see itself become a reality.’’
East vice-president and building committee chairman Dennis Galt was also over the moon at the announcement.
‘‘This will be great for our club members, it will be great for bowls in this area and the general community of Shepparton (as well),’’ Galt said.
‘‘The members will be happy and so will the schools and all of the groups who use the facilities, more people than the actual members use this facility — we’re just a small part of the group — (and) now that will expand, which will be great for the area.’’
The first sod will be turned on the project as soon as possible.
‘‘We’re ready to go,’’ Galt said.
‘‘We just have to wait for the necessary permits and paperwork, but we’ll go as quickly as we can.
‘‘There’s a lot of work to be done, but we hope that by this time next year we can be under a cover.’’
The new green’s impact on lawn bowls at East Shepparton — as well as in Greater Shepparton as a whole — will certainly be exponential.
While a myriad of community groups, schools and social bowlers will soon have two premier undercover facilities — when Shepparton Park’s roofed green is taken into account — to use all year round, the city’s overall credentials will skyrocket.
It means Bowls Victoria’s premier tournament, the Steller Victorian Open, which is already locked in for another two years, will likely stay in the Goulburn Valley for the forseeable future, while opportunities to attract national and international bowls events could fall at the Goulburn Valley’s doorstep thick and fast.
‘‘Shepparton with two covered greens — how good is that?’’ Galt said.
‘‘The Victorian Open, which we’ve hosted for a number of years now, other regions are trying to muscle in on that function and I think that will be very difficult (for them) to put up (a bid) against our facilities that we’ll have with two covered greens.
‘‘It’ll put us in a great spot.’’
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