Warragul soccer club gets $1 million for female facilities

Warragul’s Baxter Park soccer field has been granted $1 million to build new changerooms and amenities for female players.

News of the grant under the state government’s Local Sports Infrastructure Fund capped off a big week for the Warragul United soccer club that voted to merge with the Gippsland football club and Latrobe Valley Women’s football club to form Gippsland United to create greater opportunities for players to progress to higher standard competitions.

Baxter Park, that recently had a $2.1 million synthetic pitch installed, will host many of the games of the merged club.

Warragul United secretary Paul Sheehan said the grant to complete the pavilion at Baxter Park was testimony to the collaborative working relationship between the club and Baw Baw Shire who applied for the funding.

It is a great result for the region and broader soccer community and would further promote female participation at a local level, he said.

Mr Sheehan said the new facilities would help further expand the already growing membership.

Another four grants for improvements to sporting facilities in the shire were also announced by the government.

Hallora and Longwarry recreation reserves will have LED electronic scoreboards installed after council was awarded a total of almost $102,000 for the two projects.

A electronic scoreboard also will be provided for the the new netball courts at Western Park, Warragul.

A further $30,000 was granted to start designing a new joint AFL-cricket pavilion at Western Park. The pavilion is among a number of projects at the ground identified in a council master plan for the reserve.