Re opening of the Old Bar Surfclub 08.07.24

Manning River Times

Re opening of the Old Bar Surf Club

Transcript

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.

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Transcript

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