Re opening of the Old Bar Surfclub 08.07.24
Re opening of the Old Bar Surf Club
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SportsTranscript
00:00I'm Jane, I'm current president of the Tarry Old Bus Surf Club.
00:03Stage 1 was the construction of this massive outdoor area.
00:07But it actually came about because the building was structurally unsound.
00:11There was a lot of concrete cancer through it.
00:13So the only way we could get an ability to fix the concrete cancer
00:18was luckily we found a stage DA,
00:20which was the ramp that you came up down the side earlier,
00:23which gave us the ability to fix the concrete cancer
00:26but also build this beautiful extension
00:30and a lot of it happened at the very beginning of COVID.
00:33So then our ability to fundraise was a little bit cut short.
00:36So luckily after that Surf Club Facilities Grant,
00:39we applied for the Bushfire Local Economic Rehabilitation Fund,
00:44which is the blur funding,
00:46and that allowed us to complete Stage 2,
00:49which was this side, Stage 3, which is just behind you,
00:52a new kitchen, new female amenities.
00:55When we walk through and I'll show you the new community gym,
00:59that was the bathroom in that first aid room.
01:01So for us to have this set up now.
01:03That's great.
01:04Yes.
01:05First aid room, operational patrol room.
01:08So this is a new first aid room.
01:10So the existing building is, that there was the old female toilets.
01:15Just so you know.
01:16Stick the girls down the basement, that's right.
01:18Absolutely.
01:19Good girl, got them upstairs, did you?
01:20You should see, that's next on the tiller.
01:23So now we fixed, as you know, a lot of it was concrete cancer.
01:27So we fixed the concrete cancer, we shored up the building
01:29and then we built this big extension as part of it.
01:32And downstairs, a new community gym.
01:34We wanted to show you guys this,
01:35there's a nice path that leads straight down to the beach,
01:38because this is what we've done with the extension.
01:40All of the grant funding we received was just under,
01:43just shy of a million.
01:45So it was all, it was about four or five different grants,
01:48all bundled up into one.
01:50And it all really started from the bushfire emergency in 2019,
01:54when we realised that people really wanted,
01:56well they were going to use the surf club as their evacuation centre,
02:00if it was official or not.
02:01So we opened up on the Friday when the fires came through,
02:05and nobody was, like no staff member or anything was here,
02:09but people were sleeping here that night.
02:11And then on the Saturday when they fully hit the town,
02:14there was probably about 300 people in and around the hall as it existed.
02:19Some dogs, some cats, some chickens, a few geese,
02:22horses on the lawn, everything.
02:25And that made us really think, you know,
02:27this is a community entity and we wanted to upgrade it
02:29and make sure it was ready for the future.
02:31And we've been lucky enough to get a whole group of funding
02:35to make this building what it is.
02:37Still a ways to go, but for the moment, this is completion.
02:42Unfortunately, with the upgrades to the middle,
02:44a lot of the memorabilia's gone.
02:46So we want to create a memorabilia room up in the front,
02:49so people can come in and see more of the history of the club.
02:52And then just dribs and drabs.
02:54Obviously, we need to upgrade security systems.
02:57There's a tenant's area downstairs, shelving,
03:00all those little bits and pieces.
03:02So there's still more to come, maybe some kind of shade sale
03:06for out here, outfitting the new area.
03:09Active membership is pretty stable around 50, 60.
03:12Nippers membership around 100, associates,
03:15and we do have a lot of gym members.
03:17And that's been an added bonus too.
03:19So pretty much underneath us now is a community gym
03:22where people can buy a membership and take part in that as well.
03:27Surf clubs are community at the heart.
03:30They are just blood, sweat and tears by their members.
03:33I know, I'm a member of one myself, have been all of my life.
03:36And they really are the epitome of community and generosity.
03:40So I congratulate you.
03:42I congratulate you, Jane, very much.
03:44There you are. I congratulate you very much.
03:46It's also the epitome, I think, too, of extraordinary volunteerism.
03:51Australia is exceptional.
03:53Most countries pay, like, you know,
03:55we have retained Surf Lifesavers Council.
03:58Where's Clem?
04:00I don't know how many you've got on your books.
04:02But during peak times, their work is valued highly as well.
04:07But in some countries, they don't have the volunteer side of the deal.
04:11It all has to be paid for.
04:14So your net benefit to the community is just you can't value it enough.
04:20The building is beautiful.
04:21The building was built on love from a lot of successive people
04:25who've come in and taken on the project.
04:28And I guess we've just tried to make this project to future-proof the club.