Navigators Multi-Purpose Community Hub

Completion Date23 December 2024

Background

The Navigators Community Centre is the primary community meeting space in the rural town of Navigators, which sits far west within the Moorabool Shire and borders the City of Ballarat. It currently serves as a hub for social activities and connectedness and continues to be an essential asset to both locals and visitors who use the reserve for a variety of purposes.

The centre provides for a diverse range of user groups including regular users and occasional hirers. The existing hall has previously hosted private events, business seminars and community gatherings. It is also frequently used by locals and regular user groups, such as the Navigators Tennis Club and local history groups. The current capacity of the centre is restricted due to the current facilities which lack heating and accessible amenities. Large groups also need to use the outdoor amenities, which are 30 metres away from the main hall building. This presents a significant barrier to the effective use of the hall, particularly for those experiencing disability, the elderly or children who need to be accompanied by an adult when walking outside by themselves.

These barriers and inadequate facilities justify a major upgrade of the community centre to accommodate larger groups and provide accessible facilities, and meet the current needs of the growing community.

The project

The upgrade project, which commenced early 2024, will significant upgrade the existing poor infrastructure into a multi-use community building, including:

A new, open meeting space (incorporating tennis clubrooms)
Two storage rooms (incorporating historical store)
Upgraded accessible amenities (noting the existing public toilets at this location will be unavailable for the duration of construction)

The upgrade of facilities will ensure the precinct caters to a larger range of participants and increasingly diverse set of user groups by improving accessibility and inclusion at the reserve, through an additional flexible community space that complements the existing hall and encourages further usage of other assets.

The new building will cater to both the existing set of user groups and meet the identified needs of new facility hirers/users. It will present a unique opportunity to provide contemporary facilities which not only serve Navigators, but also appeal to neighbouring communities such as Warrenheip, Bungaree, Lal Lal and Millbrook.