Funding secured for new Eastwood Community Hub

The City of Ballarat has welcomed this week's announcement of $8.53 million in Federal Government funding to help deliver a new community hub at Eastwood in the heart of Ballarat’s CBD.

The City of Ballarat will contribute $9.01 million towards the $17.54 million project, with the balance of funding secured via the Australian Government’s Growing Regions Program, a highly competitive funding process.  

This funding is not dependent on the result of the upcoming Federal election.

In welcoming the funding Ballarat Mayor, Cr Tracey Hargreaves said the redevelopment at Eastwood would see an ageing facility which is not fit for purpose replaced with a new, fully accessible purpose-built community hub capable of offering opportunities for groups seeking an accessible, centrally located and affordable meeting space close to public transport.

“This is a great outcome for our community. We have consulted extensively with the Eastwood committee of management, user groups and the local community to ensure plans for the new hub can cater for the needs of existing and future users”, Cr Hargreaves said.

“Eastwood is one of Ballarat’s best used and most loved community facilities hosting 14,000 hours of programmed activity, attracting 60,000 visits annually, with 67 regular user groups and over 100 organisation and clubs using the centre.

“Once the new building is complete, we expect these numbers to grow significantly as increased capacity at Eastwood means more user groups can access the new meeting spaces.  

“We are currently in the final stages of detailed design for the facility, which we expect to finalise in the coming months before beginning the tender process to find a builder for the project.”

The new fully accessible building will include a Changing Places facility (designed for people with disability who have high support needs) and a new large multi-purpose hall that can be split into three activity rooms, three training rooms and a dedicated community meeting room. The existing stadium will remain but will be reclad.

The existing complex is no longer fit for purpose, parts of the building are not universally accessible and are not compliant with current regulations.