Anger as club house decays
Maintenance mismanagement claim over Southern Suburbs building
A BATTLE royale is brewing over the fate of a historic rugby clubhouse at Gordonvale.
The Southern Suburbs Junior Rugby League clubhouse, built in 1983, is likely to be demolished to make way for a multi-user sports development as outlined in the Cairns Regional Council’s Alley Park masterplan.
But founding member Jim Smith has protested the clubhouse’s “disgraceful” fate and said the dilapidated building had been mismanaged by successive club committees.
“It needs to be asked why successive committees did not allocate funds to progressively keep maintenance up to date,” Mr Smith wrote in a letter to the Cairns Post.
“This indicates poor leadership.
“The(ir) surrender to Cairns Regional Council is a shallow and pathetic response to their current problems.”
Former MP and SSJRLC member Warren Pit said he was “appalled” that the com- mittee wasn’t fighting to keep the clubhouse.
“Nothing good in life is easy,” Mr Pitt said.
“A lot of people worked very hard to create that.”
SSJRLC president Troy Prien said the clubhouse “was not fit for purpose”.
“It is a sports bar, really. It is not compliant and doesn’t have a disabled toilet,” Mr Prien said. “The back end is falling into the creek.”
He said repairing damage done by vandals would cost $12,000.
“It isn’t sustainable,” Mr Prien said.
“I understand people will be upset … we are trying not to dwell on the past, we are trying to look to the future.
“We are making the hard choice now … and get into the new facility to get funding for our children.”
Club members have been encouraged to attend the SSJRLC AGM on Sunday.