City $18m bid for north hub

GEELONG council will ask the federal government to kick in $18m to help fund the Northern Aquatic and Community Hub (NACH) in Norlane, dubbed a “generational project”.

Councillors unanimously voted on Tuesday night in favour of applying for $10m from the Building Better Regions Fund to be put towards the $61.6m project.

The council also voted to request the government assign $8.26m to the project through the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Fund (LRCIF), while also asking for a two-year extension of funding to give the City of Greater Geelong time to secure the remaining necessary funds.

It is the CoGG’s latest bid for financial support from government for the project, which has struggled to attract funding since its first announcement in 2014, then dubbed the Northern ARC.

The CoGG has committed $20.6m to the project and has already spent $2.2m in planning and design, recently bringing the project to “shovelready” status to better attract the remaining $41m from the state and federal governments.

Federal and state MPs last week pledged support for the project, with Lara state Labor MP John Eren saying he had asked the state’s treasury to fund the project in its budget this year after lobbying colleagues to consider its benefits.

Victorian Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson said the NACH was a “top priority project for our region”.

Councillor Bruce Harwood said he hoped the CoGG funding application and positive words from MPs meant the city was headed for some longawaited success with the project.

“It’s good to see that we’re now getting traction by, I guess, forcing the hand of some state and federal members, who have often said they had a keen interest in this project, but (it) has not turned into hard cash,” Cr Harwood said.

Northern suburbs councillor Anthony Aitken said the CoGG funding application provided a “clear direction” for how it would seek federal funding for the hub.

Plans for the NACH include the redevelopment of Waterworld and Centenary Hall in Norlane to a facility featuring a 25m pool, hydrotherapy pool, water play and learn-to-swim space, gym, 400-person multipurpose community hall, health consulting suites and public meeting rooms.

The CoGG has argued the project will address “social equity through the provision of equitable community infrastructure” to Geelong’s northern suburbs.

Independent modelling completed in 2017 and recently reconfirmed for the CoGG forecast the facility could deliver $111m in preventive health benefits during its first decade of operation.