Recreation Reserve

'THE REC' THRIVES ON COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Recreation Reserve plaqueGoogle maps iconThis plaque is located at 45 Parrott Street. (Back of Recreation Reserve scoreboard)

The establishment of the recreation reserve was a long-fought battle around the 1860s. Football was played on an allotment below where

Mr W J Silvester had his blacksmith’s shop. With a committee, Mr C Ogilvie looked around for a more suitable site.

Mr Ogilvie travelled to Melbourne to speak with the Minister for Lands who finally agreed to the present acreage being set aside. Other members of the committee who became trustees were Mr J M Johnson, D M Walker, J Skellerup, T Shenfield and L E Vagg who worked hard to clear the land and fence it with money borrowed from the National Bank.

The rest is history. Volunteers have continued to toil selflessly to ensure the Recreation Reserve remained in top condition. Historian Kaye Thornton noted in 1955: “Cobden’s sports ground . . . is without equal in the western district. The reserve has a splendid oval, clubrooms, luncheon booth and all the amenities required. It is in the heart of town and has four tennis courts with a pavilion, and it is in use practically every weekend as well as several evenings through the week.”

The recreation reserve committee of management and the user clubs – football netball, tennis, cricket and fire brigade (until 2003 when it moved its operations to the new McKenzie St precinct) – have worked together to continually improve the reserve’s facilities.

As Recreation Reserve president, Kevin Johnston was seen as the force behind the building of the Sports Club, now the Fonterra Community Function Centre.

One of the recreation reserve’s stalwarts has been Joyce Roberts, a long-serving community volunteer who joined the committee in 1978 and has been treasurer since 1987.

As a community of volunteers, they have been well- supported by the Heytesbury and Corangamite Shires, grant providers and sponsors.

Thanks to grants, sponsors, the user groups, and the community, some impressive projects undertaken since 1960 can be listed:

  • Brick changerooms, built at a cost of £8000 by L V Kelson, opened in 1963
  • Major upgrade (1977-78): Ground drained and resurfaced, trees re- moved, tennis courts x 10 upgraded, new grandstand and canteen
  • Toilet and scoreboard upgrades were Cobden Technical School projects
  • Major upgrade (early 1980s): New social clubrooms upstairs, improved change-rooms downstairs
  • Netball changerooms in late 1980s
  • Turf wicket established in 1992
  • Major development mid-1990s: Four light towers – ‘best in country Victoria’
  • Canteen and umpires room upgrades
  • Ground underground watering loop
  • Perimeter fence upgrade in mid- 2000s
  • Gate-keepers’ shelter and netball changerooms enlarged in mid-2000s
  • Naming sponsorship taken up by Cobden & District Community Bank in late 2000s
  • Playground shade and tennis shelter near canteen in mid-2010s
  • Canteen verandah upgrade
  • Double mower shed next to toilets
  • Grandstand seating x 6 with more to come
  • New defib installed in grandstand
  • Footy rooms – windows replaced
  • New ambulance gate to tennis courts
  • Function centre flooring, windows, blinds, toilets funded by Sports Club
  • Western exterior wall of function centre reclad
  • Video scoreboard: Funded by sponsorship, CFNC and CCC
  • New netball/tennis courts and shelters – see Ellen Darcy Courts
  • Pot belly fire and screens in grand- stand
  • Wicket cover storage on fence-line
  • Third practice wicket net
  • Three courts resurfaced
  • Second tennis shelter adjoining first
  • Seating behind toilet blocks to view new courts
  • Table seats x 4

Recreation Reserve Gallery