Play Our Way: Women’s sport in the Murraylands gets $3.9m investment
Our region’s gymnasts and netballers are celebrating a funding win that will transform Imperials, Jervois and the Murraylands Gymnastics Academy.
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A $2.8 million federal government investment announced on Thursday is about to transform women’s sport in the Murraylands.
The Murraylands Gymnastics Academy will be granted $1.5 million to build a state-of-the-art, competition-standard gymnasium at Murray Bridge Showground, and that’s not all.
Several other applicants from around the Murraylands were successful, too.
The Imperial Netball Club will be awarded $800,000 to resurface their courts, bring a third court up to competition standard and create a creche area to make it easier for new mums to keep playing the game they love.
The Jervois Netball Club will finally be able to build a new canteen, change rooms, toilets and an undercover training area, replacing facilities which were well past their use-by date, thanks to a $480,000 grant.
And $1.1 million will get Mannum new netball and tennis courts, lighting, changerooms, amenities, a gym space and a better wastewater system.
Gymnastics coach Jemma Tilley got a phone call about the funding exactly one year to the day after the academy was forced to cancel all its classes due to damage from a rain storm.
That storm started the academy on a year-long search for a permanent home – a search whose end is now in sight.
“Jemma was crying, I was crying – we were speechless,” the academy’s Narelle Roe-Simons said.
“There’s so much future planning we can do now.
“We’ve got our break-up for the year this Sunday, and I think there’ll be a bit of bubbly being passed around.”
Celebrating are Bianca Girdler, Jemma Tilley and Narelle Roe-Simons, and Marley Girdler and Lorraine Thompson. Photos: Peri Strathearn. Image: Architecture That/Murraylands Gymnastics Academy.
Imps’ Sarah Smith was over the moon, too.
“We’ve got a future – I’m so excited,” she said.
“(This project) will give the club longevity, it will match the growth of the region, and it’ll mean women and girls are provided with a safe environment.”
Work would be able to start almost as soon as the grant agreement came into effect in February, she said.
“It may mean we have a disrupted start to the (2025) season for the club, but we’ll work with the association and work with what resources are available to us locally,” she said.
“But all the local contractors we’re using are aware that we want to get this done as a priority and are ready to go.
Jervois Netball Club president Michelle Afford said it was both exciting and overwhelming to think that a project the club’s women had dreamed about for so many years would finally be able to go ahead.
It was a relief, too.
“You build your hopes up but you don’t want to get too hopeful and get disappointed,” she said.
“It’s amazing.
“It’s actually going to happen.”
The exact timing of the Jervois build was yet to be determined, she said – it would either have to disrupt the netballers during the winter or the town’s tennis players over the summer.
But that was a good problem to have.
Mid Murray Mayor Simone Bailey described the Mannum funding as a game-changer for the community, “an investment that will benefit generations to come”.
Federal grants worth $136 million awarded to 166 clubs
Across Australia, the facilities stream of the federal government’s Play Our Way program will give more than 100,000 women and girls access to better sporting facilities.
Federal MP Tony Pasin welcomed the funding allocated to the three local clubs.
“I threw my full support behind local Play Our Way applications because it is imperative that facilities are functional and fit for purpose to sustain and grow membership, particularly in areas of expected population growth such as the Murraylands,” he said.
“Strong and inclusive grassroots sporting clubs help strengthen regional communities.
“I’ve recently visited Imperials and Jervois netball clubs to see first-hand the need for new facilities and with a successful grant application confirmed, I’m looking forward to funding being received to get work underway as quickly as possible.”
Sport Minister Anika Wells announced the outcome of the highly competitive grants program on Wednesday afternoon at an Aussie rules football club in Sydney.
More than 1000 clubs around Australia sought funding from the program, and 255 were invited to submit more detailed applications in the final stage of judging.
“There are too many women and girls who are changing in men’s dressing rooms, playing on poor courts and fields,” she said.
“These 166 projects will address a sporting imbalance that has festered for too long.
“The huge response to the grants, and the range of great project ideas, show that Australian communities want to be more supportive of women and girls.
“I am confident the successful projects will have a major effect by signalling that every person has the right to enjoy sport, at every level.”
An earlier stream of the program, for sporting equipment, awarded $55 million to 120 clubs, including the gymnastics academy.
- Read more: You can help Murraylands gymnasts’ $1.5 million dream come true – here’s how
- Read more: Third court at Imperials would help all River Murray netballers
- Read more: Jervois Netball Club needs better facilities
Clarification: This story has been updated, twice, to more accurately reflect the dollar figure of the grants and to include the grant at Mannum. Disclosure: The author's daughter is a Murraylands Gymnastics Academy participant.
