The Pedrina Park netball courts in the south west Victorian town of Hamilton have several unusual features - and not in a good way.
Mushrooms and knee-high weeds often sprout from surface cracks that house a variety of local creatures and can be large enough to fit a human fist.
The nine courts were built in 1960, on swampland at the end of the old airport runway. They were resurfaced with asphalt in 1990, and then in 2003 concreted and covered in a synthetic blue Plexipave that has progressively fallen into disrepair.
Hamilton Netball Association (HNA) President, David Eastwood, says the local Southern Grampians Shire approved and allocated funds for a complete resurfacing in 2006, but the work was never actioned, and the money re-allocated elsewhere.
The situation has now become so dire that around half the courts are considered unplayable, and, given the council’s most recent rejection of the HNA’s funding request combined with the inability to secure a State Government stimulus funding assistance, there are fears that the remainder will soon be deemed unusable, too.
“We really need to start again,’’ says Eastwood, who has a long family history with Pedrina, has played for 35 years, umpired for decades and been President since 2008.
“I actually thought that this year if we played on them for a full year that was probably going to be the finish of them, but they haven’t degraded a lot more because of no use.
“I’ve seen that pretty fabulous facility fall down.”
Eastwood and his small committee try to do maintenance work year-round, as the centre is used by many hundreds of NetSetGO, junior and mixed senior players in a typical non-COVID week.
In addition, the Pedrina Park Netball Courts are also sub-let to various Football Netball Clubs for pre and in-season training, and hired out to schools throughout the year.
But for how much longer? Already just a memory are the days of lightning premierships and the ability to host regional tournaments that drew participants from South Australia and elsewhere, while RockUp Netball and Fast5 are newer Netball Victoria initiatives stranded on a fading wishlist.
Hence the desire for a complete overhaul that would leave six, new fully compliant courts with a different orientation and upgraded lighting. Total cost: $1.2-1.3 million.
“The Hamilton Netball Association has for years been advocating for an upgrade of their courts, which are in a pretty terrible state and in dire need of an upgrade,’’ says Mel Taylor, NV’s General Manager Participation. “They have applied for several buckets of money and been close, or next on the list.
“Council and the Association presented a strong application for the latest round of State Government Stimulus funding, but the project was again overlooked. I have to admire (HNA’s) persistence and never-give-up attitude; next time around they’ll break the project down into stages and try again.’’
Eastwood says research shows that netball participation - including among boys and men - is higher in the Hamilton area than the state average, and emphasises the importance of the facility to the local community. Before 2020, for example, which the coronavirus limited to two rounds, two mixed seasons had been played annually for almost 40 years.
Eastwood has shared a team with his wife Tanya - also a committee member and the mixed competition convenor since her involvement began as a Year 10 student doing a communications project - and teenage daughters Hannah and Chloe, and the desire to leave a family legacy helping to fuel what motivation remains to persevere.
How long will that be? “I don’t know how much energy I’ve got left. Maybe a couple of years. Little bits of funding here and there don’t add up to a great amount, so I don’t know where we go from here”
“I’ll just keep trying,’’ he says. “My daughters might not be in the area for much longer, but I’d like to see them have a facility that they’re proud of before I retire."
Written by Linda Pearce
