Inside new plans for Collinsville community hub

A brand new gym, library, and visitor information centre are all on the cards for a Whitsunday region town as council resolves to progress with plans for demolition.

Site of the new Collinsville Community Hub. Photo: Contributed

Fresh progress has been made on plans for new facilities in Collinsville which would see a new library, gym, and meeting space.

The Whitsunday Regional Council resolved to progress on plans for a new community hub at Collinsville during their recent ordinary council meeting where the decision was made to demolish the existing community centre to make way for the construction of the new facility.

Plans for the hub include the consolidation of councils customer service centre, library, and visitor information centre with an externally operated telecentre and gym.

The site will also include meeting spaces and a 300-seat multipurpose hall.

Whitsunday Regional Council Mayor, Ry Collins, said he hoped it would one day be a vibrant centre of the community.

“We’ve heard at length from our community around what they see as their aspirations for the township of Collinsville and we really feel a new building will inject fresh life into the community out there and really serve as that one meeting place that people can come together,” he said.

Whitsunday Regional Council deputy mayor, Michelle Wright, said this would be one of the biggest projects the council had delivered to the Collinsville community of late.

“It’s a really exciting project,” she said.

“We did explore options to refurbish the building however after the engineering reports came back it was deemed that was not suitable under the current building code.”

At the meeting she acknowledged community members who had concerns about the demolition of the old facility but said ultimately the decision was about responsible investment, future proofing facilities, and ensuring Collinsville had a modern and functional community space for years to come.

She also noted community consultations showed a resounding amount of the participating community wanted a multipurpose facility in Collinsville.

It was heard the existing facilities were approaching end of life and were spread throughout the township with no distinct core and refurbishing the facility would have been cost prohibitive.

Council was awarded $14.6m from the Queensland Government Resources Community Infrastructure Fund with a further $1.4m contribution from council to enable the redevelopment.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2026.