Gloucester Park Training Turf
Let’s Bring Hockey Home!
Until recently, Margaret River Hockey players made the 90-minute round trip to Busselton Hockey Stadium for training. Thanks to amazing community support and Federal and State grants, we can now train at a turf facility which is walking distance to local schools and the town centre.
Bringing hockey home
Where could a hockey training turf “fit” on Gloucester Park? In September 2018, Club President - Colin Fox “Foxy” and Fundraising & Sponsorship Coordinator - Maxine Williams put these questions to the Augusta Margaret River Shire. The Margaret River Hockey Committee were hatching a plan - time to switch it up a gear and start fundraising.
Craig Williams produced this video to promote the need for a multipurpose training turf in Margaret River.
The turf project journey had begun
Fantastic community support
With Aran Zalewski, our Club Ambassador and Co-Captain of the Australian Men’s Hockey team, involved the turf project gained momentum.
In November 2018, after a successful presentation to the Margaret River Lions Club, we had our first major donation. Foxy and Max headed south and won support from the Lions of Leeuwin. We were on a roll!
By March 2019, we had endorsement from regional schools, local sporting clubs, community clubs, shire councillors and local MP’s.
People were starting to talk about the hockey project
We made it to $300K
In April 2019 we received the best email EVER!
We found out that the turf project had been approved to receive $200,000 from Sport Australia’s “Move it AUS” Community Sport Infrastructure grant.
By July 2019, thanks to the efforts of our committee and donations from Margaret River Lions Club, Margaret River Rotary Club, Cowaramup Lions Club, Lions of Leeuwin, and Bendigo Bank, we had exciting news to share.
We used this video to ask our community to complete a survey. The results were presented to our Shire who put us forward for a State Community Sporting and Recreation Facility Fund (CRSFF) grant.
Smiles on and off the pitch
We appealed to local businesses who generously supported us to get us over the fundraising finish line. Thank you to Fusion Electrical, SportsPower, Mitre 10, Middletons and Priceline for their major donations.
To finish a big year, we launched into the 2019 Busselton Hockey Association Finals season where the great vibe continued! We had exciting end of season wins and we got together to reflect on our fundraising efforts and to thank our supporters.
What a year!
Fingers are crossed….
In January 2020, the Hon. Mick Murray visited Margaret River and announced that the CRSFF Grant we had applied for had been approved.
As summed up by Louise Mann (Club Vice President) “With the assistance of all the stakeholders, community groups, sponsors, responders to surveys, club volunteers and fundraisers, we had succeeded. This is down to the cooperative spirit of people in our Community”.
The turf project is FULLY FUNDED
Let’s Bring Hockey Home!
We were thrown a few curve balls including a change of location, necessary planning upgrades for draining and roadways and COVID-19 lock-downs. But by April 2022, the main construction was complete and we were looking forward to the Tiger Turf EvoPro product arriving and for Sport and Recreation Services to lay the turf. We were in our final weeks of construction.
On May 31st 2022, we opened the gates and ran onto the turf for our first club training session - what an achievement.
In June 2022, we hosted Trid Woodhouse for a skills session on our turf, what a privilege be able provide this opportunity for our next generation of players.
The hard work is worth it
If you want more background info about our club and turf project, read the full story, thanks to Louise Man, VP
So, what’s next…?
We are fundraising for grandstand seating for our supporters, equipment for new players and coaching clinics for our umpires, coaches and players.
We’ve teamed up with the Australian Sports Foundation, which means that your donation is tax deductible.
Please help develop our club to support our present and future generations of hockey players.
