Findon Pony Club under threat as Whittlesea Council moves to sell land

For more than half a century riders have found their feet at the Findon Pony Club in Mernda, but the club is worried its home will soon by sold by the local council.

Bailey Sant and Isabel McCabe don’t want their club to close. Picture: Rob Leeson

The future of a pony club that has operated in Mernda for more than 50 years is in doubt as land it has used since the 1960s faces development.

The Findon Pony Club has leased the site at Regent St since its inception, but been operating on a month-by-month agreement since Whittlesea Council brought the land in 2007.

The council plans to rezone the land so it can be sold but there is no time frame in place.

Club secretary Tania Quinn said after years of discussion, the council had stopped offering support to help them find new ground.

The club has operated in Mernda for half a century. Picture: Rob Leeson.

She said there wasn’t any available private land to lease near the club’s location.

It will continue to operate out of Regent St but expects to be moved on by October.

“We’ve been meeting with the council for years trying to establish what do,” Ms Quinn said.

“We don’t mind being moved on, what we would like is the council’s assistance in being relocated and finding new grounds.”

The club’s 25 members have launched a campaign titled ‘Project Save Findon’ to find a new home.

Ms Quinn said the club, which was initially formed as the Findon Hunt Club before renaming and moving to Regent St in the late 1960s, had acted like a family for generations of riders.

Isabel McCabe will join ‘Project Save Findon’. Picture: Rob Leeson.

“It isn’t just some people on horseback, it’s the community that it brings to the kids. We consider ourselves ‘family Findon’,” she said.

“My own daughter suffers from anxiety through the roof. Being on horseback, what it does for her is better than what any psychologist has done.”

“At the moment we just pay the rates. Unlike a football ground we have to maintain it all ourselves.”

The council’s director of community services Russell Hopkins said the council was working on a business case to keep it alive and a merger with another club was a potential option.

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“We will continue discussions with the club and have been working on a business case that would look at a range of options, including possible locations,” he said.

But Ms Quinn said discussions with other clubs had fallen down as it would force its 25 members to travel too far to ride.

The club will hold an information and community day on June 30 from 11am to 1pm, featuring pony rides.

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