Gympie Times campaign: Save Our Sport

Today, The Gympie Times launches its SOS campaign. As our clubs, coaches and players fight their future amid flood damage and funding cuts, we call on local and state leaders to help Save our Sport. VOTE IN OUR POLL.

The 2022 floods have been tough on the Gympie region; tougher than any disaster in recent memory.

The widespread misery and destruction continues to plague too many businesses, families, the commercial heart of the city and multiple sporting clubs.

It is this last, vast group of flood victims who appear to be the most forsaken by a financially strapped Gympie Regional Council, and not just since the February floods.

Sport has long been a powerful way to connect and stay healthy, more so in Gympie than in many other places for some reason. Perhaps it’s the lack of other entertainment facilities.

It helps keep us all engaged, less isolated, and to stay in good mental and physical health.

It also boosts the local economy and draws visitors and positive attention to our city – or at least it should.

Sport can also be a pathway to incredible success.

But Gympie sport appears to have been almost completely forgotten by a council that, admittedly, inherited a big financial problem two years ago, but which has recently been the subject of actual begging from local sporting clubs, the likes of which I have never seen.

How long can these cries for help fall on deaf ears?

Rugby union has for years been expanding and saying it needs its own home ground. Netball lost its entire facility in February 2022, and faces a $500,000 restructure bill. Basketball has also outgrown the Gympie facilities and has publicly begged for help.

Charlie Killian shoots an outside jumper at Gympie basketball. Basketball has been calling strongly for more facilities for its growing numbers. Photo: Miguel Galy

Nobody is suggesting the council give netball $500,000. It has made small gestures such as backing down over a plan to double the fees it charged basketballers, but it has failed to give any indication it plans to address the broader problem. In fact, it has said quite plainly it will not be doing anything until its finances improve.

This is a rapidly growing region. As of June 2021, it had a population of almost 54,000, and many more have relocated here since, and continue to do so.

Our population is on the rise but there seems to be no evidence of the infrastructure growth to accommodate that. Indeed, our heartbreaking housing crisis is the most powerful and distressing example of our leaders’ and planners’ failure to be ahead of the curve.

There once was an ambitious plan to expand Gympie’s sport fields and facilities. Where is that plan now? Who will save Gympie sport? Something has to give.

Today The Gympie Times launches its SOS campaign to Save Our Sport. We need to convince the Gympie Regional Council and the State Government to listen to our sporting community and move forward with the plan to open up more playing fields and or facilities. Vote in our poll.

If your club has a story to tell please email [e-mail]

Originally published as Gympie Times campaign: Save Our Sport