Hanging Rock Cricket Club fights to save historic oval from government bulldozers

The Hanging Rock Cricket Club is “flabbergasted” by government plans to kick them out of their 119-year-old oval.

The Hanging Rock Cricket Club faces a nervous wait over its future, with bureaucrats seemingly determined to kick the thriving community club out of its historic home and bulldoze one of the most scenic grounds in the state.

Locals and visitors have played competition cricket at the club’s oval, at the base of Hanging Rock, since at least 1903, but a controversial draft plan for the area will see it dug up and replaced with an a small wetland, a short walking track and picnic benches.

Club vice president Stephen Mitchell said he was “flabbergasted” by the plan and was doing everything possible to convince bureaucrats to let cricket continue at Hanging Rock.

“We are a thriving community and family club, and the oval is our home,” Mr Mitchell said.

The department of environment, land, water and planning quietly began public consultation on its draft masterplan plan for Hanging Rock on Christmas Eve last year.

The public consultation period closed last Monday, meaning the club’s future at its home oval is now in the hands of bureaucrats and politicians.

A flurry of activity to save the 100-member club has included a parliamentary petition, which by Friday had gathered more than 500 signatures backing the importance of local sport in the region.

Legislative Council member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell said the timing of the community consultation amounted to the department “hanging all their dirty washing out on under the cover of Christmas”, a view the club shares.

Mr Mitchell said he was blindsided when government officials first told him, in November, of their plans to dig up the century-old oval, after an earlier 2018 strategic plan stressed the importance of the cricket club to the local community.

Mr Mitchell said it was a kick in the guts that the government planned to kick the cricket club out of the reserve by bulldozing its oval, but allow the surrounding racecourse — which hosts just two race meetings a year — to stay because of its historical and heritage value.

The New Years Day country race meeting at Hanging Rock. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

“Cricket has been played here since at least the 1880s,” Mr Mitchell said.

“People came to Hanging Rock for picnics, horse racing and to play cricket.”

He said none of the bureaucrats involved could “offer any good reason for why cricket can’t continue” at the oval.

Mr Mitchell lives in nearby Newham, has dedicated countless volunteer hours to environmental work at Hanging Rock, and said sports were vital to building a sense of community among local villages and hamlets, none of which could support a cricket club on their own.

Supplied Editorial Hanging Rock Cricket Club

Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio has previously said her department was working to ensure the masterplan reflected community interests, but Mr Mitchell said the draft proposal catered largely for tourists, at the expense of locals.

Local member Ms Lovell said: “The government should not be doing anything that disenfranchises the locals and restricts recreational activities that have taken place for around 100 years.”

Macedon Ranges Shire mayor Jennifer Anderson said she had “definitely heard” feedback from locals that the draft plan puts the interests of tourists ahead of those of locals, and she would “absolutely” make sure bureaucrats were aware of local criticisms of their plans.

Ms Anderson said plans for the site were “not a done deal” and that her council would “work with” the state government to have a new oval built for the club if it was forced out.

The final masterplan will be released in June.