General News
6 December, 2025
Powering on Minyip Recreation Reserve projects
THERE’S been some welcome additional good news for Minyip in the last two weeks, with the awarding of $10,000 funding by the Foundation for Rural Regional Renewal that will go toward the upgrade of the power supply to the Recreation Reserve area.
With LED lighting for the oval announced in September, among other ongoing upgrades, and the power supply already at near-capacity, Minyip Reserve committee of management treasurer, Gina Gellion, said they had recognised the need.
She wryly observed that “if someone plugs the kettle in the wrong powerpoint on a busy day … you can blow a fuse very quickly – it happens quite regularly”.
“We need a major increase in supply, because we have brand new lighting coming to the oval,” she said.
“We have, obviously, the new amenity building to power.
"We have the community pavilion, which already exists, that is situated right next to the amenity building that is going to receive power from the new power upgrade.
“So it's got to power a lot. We want power in reserve.”
Gina said PowerCor was also mandated to deliver a supply that met all needs – including adequate three-phase power – and were invested in making sure it would be done right.
“They just said, ‘Look, if you want to do all this, basically, this is the way we're going to deliver the power,’” she said.
“‘This is how it's going to be done … instead of sort of things being tacked on over the years – it's all going to be removed and done properly.’”
The combination of funding for various projects that ultimately all pull in one direction – the modernisation of facilities located at the reserve – was something Gina was pleased to report on, along with the community’s involvement.
“So the actual new amenity block has been funded through the Play Our Way program, plus other money from Minyip/Murtoa Football Netball Club and the Rupanyup Finance Group,” she said.
“The lighting has come through Sport and Recreation Victoria, with significant contributions from the Minyip Recreation Reserve plus the Rup/Minyip Panthers Cricket Club, Minyip Lions Club, Minyip Progress (Association) – so the whole community has gotten behind this project, both through letters of support and meetings, but also financial contributions.”
She said she wrote the first letter seven years ago to get this “master plan” underway and was incredibly appreciative to see the goals in sight after so much work.
“It's probably a great example of a lot of people sharing a common goal,” Gina said.
“Everyone's on the same page, there's been no conflict, there's been no drama.
"Everyone's working together to deliver something that's really going to benefit Minyip.
“The whole community will benefit from this; it's a true community benefit.”
Yarriambiack Shire Council have also backed the overall mission, evidenced by their involvement in developing and submitting the funding application for the lighting, along with the project management, and has fully supported the need for the power upgrade, calling it “a necessity to enable the projects to go ahead and operate to their full potential moving forward”.
“As part of the broader works happening at the Minyip Recreation Reserve (new modular changeroom building, netball court, and the oval LED Lighting upgrade), an onsite power upgrade is required,” a spokesperson said.
“However, the need for the power upgrade brought about some unexpected costs in excess of $130,000 that were not budgeted.
“Without the power upgrade, the Minyip Recreation Reserve will experience many power problems, and will have issues connecting the new change room building, netball court and lighting towers into the switchboards.”
They were pleased for the community with the FRRR funding success.
They said they were “working closely with other government agencies to find a solution for the power issues identified at the reserve.”
“We hope to share some positive information in the coming months that will provide a solution to address the issue,” the spokesperson said.
Minyip/Murtoa Football Netball Club president, Chris Delahunty said seeing the “big projects all happening” was very satisfying and was even pleased to report on the recent harvesting of the ‘Burra Ag’ barley paddock, with an excellent yield result averaging over six tonne per hectare – funding raised on the paddock and the other ‘swimming pool’ paddock will go directly to supporting various needs for their respective entities.
“A lot of the funds from that harvest will go directly towards that,” he said.