Sports hub in Fitzgibbon to get $7M netball courts
A multimillion dollar netball facility to be built by 2020 will bring the total investment into a rapidly developing sports precinct in Brisbane’s north to $19 million.
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A MULTIMILLION dollar netball facility to be built by 2020 will bring the total investment into a rapidly developing sports precinct in Brisbane’s north to $19 million.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk announced the council would build the first stage of a $7 million netball precinct at Bill Brown Sports Reserve at Fitzgibbon.
The council has already spent $12 million at Telegraph Rd to build the Emily Seebohm Aquatic Centre, Bracken Ridge Skate Plaza and Bracken Ridge BMX facility.
The pool and skate plaza were opened in 2016 and the BMX facility earlier this year.
“Over the city of Brisbane we have some 15,000 young women who play netball and we want to make sure that we continue to grow the facilities,” he said.
“What we are doing is making sure we do find locations of demand and one of the reasons we’re here today is because the closest significant netball facilities to here is about five kilometres away,” he said.
He said it was part of a $40 million city-wide investment in new sports facility, which included netball courts in Wakerley and new sports parks in Rocklea and Windsor.
The council will build four hard courts, lighting and a new carpark as part of the initial stage, with construction to begin mid next year and be finished by 2020.
Cr Amanda Cooper (Bracken Ridge) said local clubs “really had to go out of their way” to train and play in the northern suburbs, hiring school courts for training.
Cr Cooper said the plans for a netball hub in Bracken Ridge had been on her agenda for five years, and that the council anticipated there would eventually be at least 12 courts on site.
“We look at - long-term - building more facilities here to really build a netball hub to see potentially the next Laura Geitz emerge from the northern suburbs of Brisbane,” she said.
She said the Bramble Bay Pony Club, who lease the site from the council, will move to a new purpose-built facility for them to be accessed via Roghan Rd.
Ridgettes Netball Club president Vince DeGregorio said it was difficult to get girls to the hired courts and have enough time to practise before dark.
“The travel times in the afternoons does make it difficult. You make it work, you do what you have to do but the advantage of being here would be fantastic, would be tremendous,” he said.
“I think it’s going to be fantastic for the girls here, and the talent we have around here will really be rewarded for it.”
Sandgate Hawks Netball Club president Scott Bretherton welcomed the announcement.
“This is great for the area, particularly for young ladies and women in sport, to keep them engaged and keep them healthy.”
Mr Bretherton said the nearest courts, other than in schools, were on Rode Rd, Chermside.
“Netball is a growing sport and there’s been no investment in a female driven and dominated sport in the area, so this is overdue,” he said.
The Hawks, who train at Bracken Ridge Indoor Sports, currently play at the Les Hughes Sports Complex in Lawnton.
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