Project Description

East Gippsland is an active community which is supported by a range of sporting facilities across the district. Council has undertaken a strategic review which matches existing facilities to current and future needs. The draft East Gippsland Sporting Facilities Plan 2023 identifies a framework for developing key sporting facilities into the future. This includes planning for improvements of playing surfaces, clubrooms, landscaping, community facilities, pedestrian connectivity, storage, lighting, and off-street parking. A focus of the review has been on ‘organised’ sporting needs and facilities, however, there has been an equally important commitment to ensuring increased activation of sporting facilities for non-sporting use, as well as more informal and casual use by the community. While we are looking to improve the quality of our facilities from a sporting perspective, these facilities are seen as playing an important role for the whole community and we are seeking input as to how we can better develop them for other groups, organisations and individuals, as well as for sporting use. 

Project Background

In 2018 East Gippsland Shire Council developed the Bairnsdale Sporting Facilities Plan which identified a set of strategic directions for the provision of sporting facilities in Bairnsdale for the following fifteen years. The next stage of this strategic planning is to review sporting facilities, activities, current needs, and future needs, facility priorities and detailed business plans for the townships of Lindenow, Lindenow South, Lakes Entrance, Paynesville, Omeo and Orbost. 

It is acknowledged that this Plan does not capture every Reserve in East Gippsland, nor every sport. While it would have been great to capture each reserve and every sport, these communities were selected due to their population, their changing demographics and needs, as well as the need to consider the broader catchments of these locations. This is not to diminish the importance of our other communities and sporting facilities. In most cases there are existing masterplans and strategic plans for reserves not listed. These will be included in the final East Gippsland Sporting Facilities Plan. For those without a Masterplan, the principles identified will provide the framework to develop one.

The draft East Gippsland Sporting Facilities Plan 2023 has been prepared in close consultation with sporting clubs and committees of management. It is now time to seek wider community feedback on the draft - we are looking forward to hearing from you.

East Gippsland Sporting Facilities Plan Project Reference Group.

• Sport and Recreation Victoria 
• Cricket Victoria
• Netball Victoria
• Tennis Victoria
• Bairnsdale Regional Unlimited Sports
• East Gippsland Football Netball League & Omeo District Football Netball League

Community Consultation Update

The community consultation has now closed. Thank you to everyone who participated in the community consultation for the draft East Sporting Facilities Plan in April/May this year. We’ve listened to your feedback from the survey responses to the draft plan which will to shape the development of the final report. We’ve also responded to your feedback to let you know the reasons behind the decisions made and why or why not certain aspects can or can’t be included. For a full summary of the feedback received please view the Community and Stakeholder Engagement Feedback under Documents. We thank everyone who took the time to take part in the online survey. 

Final Draft Report and Masterplans are available for your information.

We now have final draft Report and masterplans which were refined with community and stakeholder engagement. The plans and report are scheduled to be presented to Council in the following month. The plans and report can be located under Documents.