Resident soccer and cricket clubs at JT Gray Reserve in Williamstown North have scored $650,000 in state funding towards a new $4million pavilion that aims to increase participation among female players.
The government announced Hobsons Bay council would receive $550,000 from the Victorian Asia Cup 2015 Legacy Fund and $100,000 from its Female Friendly Facilities initiative to promote girls’ and women’s participation in sport.
The council allocated $680,000 for the first stage of the project in its draft 2017-18 budget.
The ground is home to Barnstoneworth United junior and senior football soccer clubs, St Johns Williamstown Cricket Club, Williamstown Congregational Cricket Club and Williamstown Soccer Club.
Williamstown MP Wade Noonan said the grant would ensure the cubs had state-of-the-art facilities.
“Every weekend J.T. Gray Reserve is full of local kids playing junior sport,” he said.
“This grant will help encourage junior players to get onto the field.”
Hobsons Bay mayor Sandra Wilson, whose mayoral priorities include improving access to sport for females, said there was a particular need for female change rooms at the popular reserve.
“We look forward to working collaboratively with all the clubs to develop the best possible shared pavilion and one that will hopefully be a real benchmark for future sporting pavilions in Hobsons Bay,” Cr Wilson said.
“The unisex change rooms for me in particular will be of particular importance for the ever increasing female participation in soccer at J.T. Gray Reserve and I’m proud of what this pavilion will become.”
