News

Merbein South celebrates park handover

Sun, 10 Nov 2019 20:06:00

A community celebration will commemorate the long-awaited handover of a recreation space to the community of Merbein South this weekend.

The Merbein South Community Hall and Recreation Park Inc has officially taken over running the recreation area, which is the site of the settlement’s hall, tennis courts, recreation ground and its former school.
Merbein South Community Hall and Recreation Park Inc is now the management body for the site and is planning a car boot sale and community day on Sunday November 10.
“We wanted to acknowledge the hard work that has been done by both local residents and the Mildura Rural City Council in preserving and retaining this beautiful little space for our local community,” said group chairman Ivan Shaw.
“The school was closed in 2012, and it’s really taken since then to have all of the formalities tied up to ensure this site is retained for our community, so it is a cause for celebration.”
Mr Shaw said the community day would offer the opportunity for anyone to bring along items to sell from their car boots, and an auction of larger items was also being planned.
All proceeds will go to support the installation of air conditioning in the hall and improvement of the grounds. 
“We’re welcoming anyone to book a spot, or to take advantage of the opportunity to have items included in our auction,” he said.
“There’ll be plenty of activities for the kids as well, with face painting, a jumping castle and other activities.  We’ll have a sausage sizzle, Devonshire tea, cake stalls, plant sales, and of course plenty of the fresh local produce that Merbein South is known for.
“We want to make it a great family day, because we’re an area with a growing number of young families.
With that in mind, we think it’s important to have a space where people and families can come together, to have for functions, picnics or organised activities or sports – which is why we’ve worked so hard for it to stay as a community space.”
Many travellers on the busy Sturt Highway also stop to use the space, which is why the community is lobbying to have this made a public toilet facility.
Mr Shaw said the hall would be available for hire for events and functions in future, and the tennis courts and open space were readily accessible by community members and visitors.
“The school has been here since 1913 and the hall has existed since 1929, so this has always been a hub for the community – and we’re now hoping that will continue to be the case well into the future,” he said.
“There’s also been a large amount of work to get us this far and we want to acknowledge that on our celebration day, as well as the critical input from Mildura Rural City Council in backing us and helping us as we worked towards this goal.”

Pictured: Committee members Geoff Izard, Cheryl Storer and Ivan Shaw at the hall