The Labor Government this week promised $1.25m to upgrade the substandard Portland gymnastics facility at Yarraman Park, if successful in this month’s state election.

The announcement was made by South-West Coast Labor candidate Kylie Gaston on Wednesday at the shed that is the home of the Portland Gymnastics Club.

The club has high participation numbers, with 178 active gymnasts, which fell from somewhere in the high 200s before the pandemic, but is struggling with the limited facility.

Classes regularly must be cancelled because the un-insulated building gets too hot, as well as being freezing in winter, and by the time gymnasts reach level six, usually around the start of secondary school, they are not able to practice a number of essential techniques because the roof is too low.

Senior teacher Brooke Smith said the facility limits how skilled her students are able to become, as they are currently forced to travel to Warrnambool or Hamilton to practice those skills.

“There's only so much that they're going to be able to go if we can't train them how we need to,” she said.

“At the end of the day, we’ll use whatever facility that’s available to us, but we’ve certainly got ideas about how it can work better for us.”

“Obviously the higher roof, insulation and air conditioning, but we also don’t have running water in the building, we can only fill up our water bottles in the boys’ toilets.”

The Club is very grateful for the promised investment from the Labor Government which will make the building more useable and comfortable in the short term, says Ms Smith.

“We’ve been planning for and wanting an upgrade for a very long time, so we can hold proper competitions for all grades and be able to do everything they can at other clubs, so it’s just a matter of the Government coming on board to help pay for it.”

Ms Gaston said that listening to people at the club on Wednesday gave her an appreciation for how needed the money is.

“It’s fantastic to announce this amount of money to be spent in the Portland community,” she said.

“It's pretty clear that they need a higher roofline, so perhaps an extra half a shed, and obviously there’s the insulation issue here as well.

 “This will ensure that they can continue to grow and also have high levels of competition.”

New Glenelg shire mayor Scott Martin was also at the announcement, along with other councillors.

 The shed is owned by the council, and was originally built as part of the new location for the Portland show, serving as the cake pavilion.

Cr Martin welcomed the funding, saying council would now begin the process of working with the gymnastics club to get them the upgrades they need.

“Any time a political party pledges money it's fantastic to see, and a sign that they do see our region as growing,” he said.

While upgrading the building that the club currently operates out of may not be one of council’s major infrastructure priorities, he is happy to work around that to help address the factors that are hampering the club.

“Council is certainly a moveable feast and we do have to adapt to what funding is available,” Cr Martin said.

“There's some pretty clear some objectives there, it's not rocket science what we need to fix.

“$1.25 million doesn’t go very far these days, so the Shire might need to look at co-contributing, or maybe look at other funding avenues.”