{"id":211641,"date":"2018-06-19T22:28:46","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T12:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=211641"},"modified":"2020-07-31T11:09:40","modified_gmt":"2020-07-31T01:09:40","slug":"netball-courts-bounce-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/06\/19\/netball-courts-bounce-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Netball Courts Bounce Back"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nanango & District Netball Association president Georgina Mitchell and NBNA member Wawida Collins, who helps bring young players from Cherbourg each week, are both very pleased with the Association’s bright, new courts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

June 19, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nanango netballers were back in action for the first time on their eye-popping new courts on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The fixtures games were a low-key start for the new courts, but a much bigger celebration will occur on Sunday (June 24) when the Nanango & District Netball Association holds a special get-together to thank the many sponsors who made the refurbishment possible.<\/p>\n

This sponsors’ event will coincide with Day 1 of the Central Burnett Challenge, a multi-town competition involving netballers from Nanango, Gayndah, Mundubbera and Monto which is expected to attract as many as 200 players.<\/p>\n

But the biggest celebration of all will need to wait until August when Agriculture Minister and Member for Maranoa David Littleproud – who helped the club secure a $200,000 grant to put an end to five gruelling years of fundraising – officially opens the facility.<\/p>\n

The Netball Association’s need to build new courts began in 2013 when flooding caused extensive damage to its Nanango-Brooklands Road site.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two of the club\u2019s four courts were rendered unusable, and the remaining two were deeply cracked.<\/p>\n

What made the situation even more devastating for the club was that just a short time before, the courts had been completely refurbished thanks to a $51,000 grant from Nanango\u2019s Heritage Community Branch.<\/p>\n

Club officials said the problem with the courts was that they were built in a flood-prone area on a base of old bitumen left over from the early days of the Tarong Power Station’s construction.<\/p>\n

This meant the base wasn\u2019t flood resistant.<\/p>\n

So when floods inundated the area in 2013, water seeped through it and caused the courts to buckle and crack.<\/p>\n

The club realised it needed to get a permanent fix for the problem, which involved ripping up the existing courts and rebuilding them on a block of concrete.<\/p>\n

The problem they faced was that it would cost more than $308,000 to do this, and it led to a what turned out to be a five-year fundraising drive.<\/p>\n

By January this year, the netball club had secured funding commitments from Heritage Community Branch, the Gambling Community Benefit Fund, the South Burnett Regional Council, Stanwell Corporation and other donors totalling $108,000.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Club members thought they might be facing at least another decade of fundraising before they could achieve their target.<\/p>\n

But last year, 12-year-old netballer Makenzie Gerber wrote to Member for Maranoa David Littleproud to alert him to the club\u2019s dilemma and ask if he could do anything to help.<\/p>\n

Mr Littleproud inspected the netball courts soon afterwards and promised he would try to find a solution.<\/p>\n

In January, Mr Littleproud announced he had helped the club secure a $200,000 grant from the Indigenous Advancement Strategy because 60 of the club\u2019s 150 members come from Cherbourg.<\/p>\n

The grant was approved by Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion because it would provide significant opportunities for Indigenous women and girls in the region to participate in netball activities.<\/p>\n

Work on the new courts began on March 26 and was finished on June 8, after which the courts had to be left to cure for a week before club members could play on them.<\/p>\n

Last Friday, they were packed with eager netballers keen to give them a maiden run.<\/p>\n

Netball club president Georgina Mitchell said she was “over the moon” about the new courts, which have been painted in the netball club’s colours of blue and purple.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“We’ve all waited a long time for this to happen, and we’re very grateful to everyone who’s helped us,” Georgina said.<\/p>\n

The new courts now sit on a solid block of concrete, with drainage channels to divert floodwaters around them.<\/p>\n

The courts also slope slightly, to help rainwater drain off quickly.<\/p>\n

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