Normanville Surf Life Saving Club’s new look revealed under Yankalilla Council’s $3.5m rebuild plans

A surf lifesaving club’s new look has been revealed, as part of a plan for a contentious $12m foreshore upgrade dividing the community.

A new $3.5m Normanville Surf Life Saving Club will bring the 200-member organisation’s base into the 21st century.

President Dave Jansen said the existing clubrooms, which are about 30 years old, did not meet safety and disability access standards.

The upgrade, funded by $385,000 from the club, $1.96m from the state government and $1.155m from Yankalilla Council, is part of a $12m upgrade of Normanville’s foreshore.

The building also includes a $1.6m cafe, and $300,000 worth of works to create a new rear entry, bringing the building’s full cost up to $5.4m.

Yankalilla Council previously voted to go ahead with the foreshore upgrade and was to consider the surf club’s planning and tender stages on Tuesday.

An artist's impression of the proposed new Normanville surf life saving club. Picture: Supplied

An artist impression of the proposed $12m Normanville Foreshore upgrade. Picture: Supplied

Mr Jansen said the club’s current facilities “aren’t very good at all” with problems including damage to balustrades and decking.

“It’s one of the last clubs to be developed in the state,” he said.

“It will allow us to have weddings and funerals. We have about 10 to 12 community groups who use the clubhouse and that will continue when it’s built.”

The foreshore upgrade includes a new kiosk, about 20 new cabins in the caravan park, about 20 new cabins at the local caravan park, a nature play area, public plaza and boardwalk upgrade.

As reported, the plan has divided some sectors of the community, amid worries about the loss of Normanville’s quiet atmosphere.

Some locals were also worried about its cost being onerous on a small ratepayer community.

Previously, council chief executive Nigel Morris said construction would begin on Jetty Caravan Park’s new cabins within about six months and on the new surf lifesaving club and kiosk in June 2022.

The Normanville surf lifesaving club as it looks now. Picture: Emma Brasier

The two projects are the major components of an $11.7m overhaul plan for Normanville’s waterfront.

“It’s a game-changer for the community,” Mr Morris has previously said. “It creates more of a destination, but it’s also facilities that can be used by locals and generates additional income to help pay for other projects.”

But locals are worried the foreshore upgrade will create a “Gold Coast”-style development

Resident Ruth Trigg said locals were also concerned it would ruin the area’s visual appeal and its “intimate” character.

“The foreshore is a very fragile area and yet we feel as if we’re being forced into an overdriven kind of development that people don’t want,” said Ms Trigg, who served as a Yankalilla councillor from 2018-2019.

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