THE latest round of funding from the Southern Grampians Shire Council (SGSC) Community Partnership Grants, has seen sporting bodies gain access to money from the Shire that will help refurbish tired facilities, update scoreboards and in the case of the Hamilton Speedway Drivers club, help stage the Australian Street Stock titles in March 2024.

The club was successful in gaining a grant for $13.900.00 that will assist with the total project cost of $51,583.00 when the Titles are staged here in Hamilton next year.

Hamilton Speedway Drivers Club committee member, Tim Field was very excited that the Shire awarded the club the grant which will go towards the staging of the event.

“Street Stock is the biggest sedan class in speedway in Australia, and we are expecting between 120-140 cars entering the titles,” Field said.

“We are excited for the event to take place at our venue, but also for Hamilton as a town as it will promote the area all over Australia and hopefully lead to more of these events.

“We were awarded the titles to stage originally back in 2022, but COVID hit and forced everything back and now it’s our time.

“This is the sixth Australian title we have held, and this will be the biggest yet.

“We want to see not only our club and venue profit from this event, but also the whole community benefit from the event through the influx of people coming to the town and the district.

“The Shire staff were excellent in our grant application process, and they gave us every assistance and really helped us when we needed it.

“The grant is going to help with the upgrade of our facilities, and also with the general running of the event.”

Other successful applicants that received major grants included the Dunkeld Recreation Reserve who gained $15,000.00 towards the cost of upgrading of the floodlights at venue.

While Dunkeld Bowling Club, Cavendish Football Club and Glenthompson-Dunkeld Football Netball club all received grants under the Community Infrastructure section of the funding.

Dunkeld Bowling club received $15,000.00 towards the $170,000.00 cost of green replacement at the club, while Cavendish FNC received $15,000.00 towards the $47,532.00 cost of a digital scoreboard, and Glenthompson-Dunkeld FNC gained $12,906.00 towards the $37,906.00 cost of a portable LED video screen/scoreboard.

SGSC chief executive, Tony Doyle, said there was a record number of applications and said “it certainly made the process very challenging” in deciding who to award funding to.

Tahara cricket club gained $1,950.00 towards the cost of hiring training facilities in Hamilton;  Hamilton Running Club received $2,500.00 towards the cost of the Hamilton Running Club Running Summit; Hamilton Clay Target Club gained $2,500.00 towards the cost of a reliable water supply; Mockas Boxing Club got $2,500.00 towards the upgrading of PPE and Gym equipment; Hamilton Golf Club will have new range mats thanks to $2,500.00 grant; Grangeburn Bowling Club will install new access handrails with its $2,330.00 grant; Byaduk Recreation Reserve will be able to purchase new tables and seating for public use with $2,374.00 grant; Dunkeld Public Lands will install a new basketball hoop with its $2,479.00 grant; Pigeon Ponds Recreation Reserve gained $2,392.84 for new baby change table facilities and Parklands Golf Club has $2,500.00 towards the greening of parklands project.

Sports clubs and bodies were awarded $95,832.84 in total to aid projects that have a total cost of $383,629.03.