Tennis club seeks heritage listing
Two Horsham sporting clubs are anxiously awaiting the release of an updated Horsham Rural City Council City to River Masterplan that could have big implications for their futures.
In July the council released a draft plan aimed at transforming Horsham’s riverfront, sporting and central precincts during the next 20 years.
Horsham Lawn Tennis Club, among several groups to voice concerns, was missing in redevelopment plans for Horsham Botanic Gardens.
Community feedback on the draft masterplan released by the council showed the removal of the lawn tennis courts was the biggest concern for 24 percent of the 740 respondents.
Horsham Lawn vice-president Hailey Yorke said the club still had no indication if it would be included in an updated version of the plan based on community feedback.
She said a recent meeting between council representatives and club president Andrew Dorman ‘didn’t do much to advance the discussion’.
“They were proposing a lease, and I wouldn’t have thought we’d need a lease considering we’ve been there a very long time,” she said.
“I don’t know why they’d need to formalise it. The only reason I can think of is because a lease has an expiry date.
“We’ve been occupying that land since 1883 and we’ve never had any formal arrangement with the council as far as I know.
“If we were to go on a lease it would allow the council to dictate terms to us, so we’re not really interested in that.”
Ms Yorke said the club was applying for heritage status to help protect its place in the gardens. “Our club is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, tennis club in Horsham,” she said.
“It’s probably also one of the oldest sporting clubs in Horsham.
“We’ve got growing junior membership, and our senior membership is growing as well.
“We don’t have any issue with beautifying the river. If the council wants to invest money to improve the area, that’s great, but I don’t think they need to get rid of the tennis courts to do that.”
Meeting delayed
Another part of the masterplan involves the redevelopment of Horsham City Oval, including altering dimensions and changing its orientation from east-west to north-south.
A group of Wimmera football identities, former district politicians and representatives from Horsham Football Netball Club – the oval’s main tenant – was scheduled to meet with council members to discuss the plan on Thursday last week, but was forced to postpone the meeting because of unavailability.
Former Horsham mayor and Wimmera football legend Kevin Dellar said many aspects of the oval redevelopment were unworkable.
“I know the club does not want to go to the north-south orientation,” he said.
“One of the things a council worker said was that there wouldn’t be any permanent fence around the oval, but there would be temporary fencing that they could put up every week they had a home game.
“You imagine committee people putting up and taking down fences every second week – you wouldn’t have people wanting to do it.”
Mr Dellar said the oval shown in the masterplan was well below AFL standards.
“With the plan as it is, the oval is still 30 metres short of meeting compliance,” he said.
“When you put 30 metres on that oval running north-south as it is shown, we’re going to be the first football club in Victoria to have a goal umpire who is able to sit on a soundshell stage and wave the flags from there. It’ll be a choice between either Sawyer Park or the footy ground. It would just be a joke.”
At a meeting earlier this month Horsham mayor Mark Radford said councillors were attending a series of workshops with council staff to update the City to River Masterplan based on community feedback.
He said they hoped to be able to announce an updated plan before the end of the year.