THE Melville Oval redevelopment is one step closer after the final funding box was ticked during last Wednesday’s Southern Grampians Shire Council meeting.

A motion was put to council to allocate $3.9 million from the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program to the project, ensuring the works was now fully funded.

The motion was passed unanimously, and opens the door for the project to get underway in the coming months.

Council mayor, Bruach Colliton said it was a big step to have the redevelopment fully funded.

“It has been a long time in the making, but now that it is fully budgeted, it is going to really transform the sporting facilities and how it feels here and hopefully bring the community together,” he said.

“For us, this is an obvious choice, we’d obviously had $4 million in the budget previously which had come from the Federal Government, but to now have the $8 million in the budget sets us up really well.

“It is a big project, it will transform the whole precinct.”

The upgrade will ensure Hamilton will be eligible to host Hampden Football Netball League finals when complete, along with other major sporting events.

Colliton said the process had already got underway in regards to tenders.

“We are really wanting to line it up perfectly to create less disruption, what we don’t want to do is go out and demolish everything then not have someone ready to construct, so we are working on those timelines in place,” he said.

“There will be some disruptions, but that will be a good thing to just get it done.

“Once this is complete, it will be seen as a really significant regional facility.

“We have consulted all the appropriate sporting bodies to ensure we meet all the standards required.

The Hamilton Kangaroos will be big beneficiaries of the upgrades and senior coach, Hamish Waldron said he was excited to see the project get underway soon.

“It as needed doing for a few years,” he said.

“To finally get the final box ticked is really good.

“There has always been that bit of a divide with the netballers down there.

“It will be really good for the juniors and the parents can watch the football and netball at the same time.”

Waldron said it was also important to keep the facilities up to date for the community as well as the players, officials and supporters.

“As much as the grandstand is nice, it is very old and dated inside and it will be nice to have a function room that we can go into and it feels like our club,” he said.

“It is always exciting when you see new facilities done up,” he said.

“Warrnambool’s just got done and the way it looks, it is easy to bring people into town when they come in and see everything new.”

The Hamilton and District Cricket Association (HDCA) A grade final is played at Melville Oval each year and association president, Lloyd Ilett said it had been a long time coming.

"It has been 20 plus years in the making with the HDCA, the Hamilton Kangaroos FNC as well as the Hamilton Football Netball Club and the Hamilton Imperials Football Netball Club all working tirelessly over that period to get the facility redeveloped,” he said.

"The HDCA will continue to provide not only great local competitions but also regional, state and national carnivals in men's and women's cricket for many years to come."

Colliton said the funding was the biggest hurdle and now the community can get excited about the redevelopments happening soon.

“We are one step closer than we have ever been and it will happen pretty soon,” he said.

“We want to see this started as soon as possible, not six months away.”