Bendigo’s grassroots sport push tests limits of ageing local venues

Bendigo’s amateur sporting leagues are reporting record participation numbers this winter, placing fresh pressure on a network of facilities that many local clubs say were last upgraded in the 1990s. The Bendigo Junior Football League alone has added four new teams since 2024, pushing total weekly player numbers past 1,200, a figure that league officials say strains change-room capacity at grounds such as Epsom-Huntly Reserve and Queen Elizabeth Oval.

Patchwork upgrades across the city

The City of Greater Bendigo’s 2025-26 capital works budget allocated $1.3 million for sport and recreation infrastructure, a sum that includes resurfacing the netball courts at the Bendigo Stadium precinct and replacing floodlights at the Strathfieldsaye Sports Complex. But club volunteers at the Kennington Cricket Club and the Bendigo Amateur Soccer Association point out that those projects, while welcome, do little for the smaller suburban grounds where most junior matches are played.

At the Jack Findlay Oval in Eaglehawk, the main pavilion dates from 1972. A council condition audit obtained by The Daily Bendigo in May rated the building’s amenities as “poor”, with leaking roofs and insufficient female change rooms. The audit identified $870,000 in deferred maintenance across eight community sports venues in the municipality.

“We’re patching up showers and hoping the hot water holds out for another season,” said one volunteer committee member who asked not to be named. The City of Greater Bendigo’s recreation strategy, released in 2024, acknowledged that “a number of older facilities no longer meet the needs of modern community sport.”

Competing demands for scarce dollars

The funding squeeze comes as the Victorian Government’s Community Sports Infrastructure Fund, which has provided $48 million statewide since 2020, faces a record 273 applications for the current round. Bendigo-based clubs submitted 14 of those applications, seeking a combined $4.2 million for projects ranging from all-weather netball courts at the Bendigo Netball Association to a new synthetic pitch for the Bendigo Football Netball League.

The state government announced in March that it would prioritise projects in growth corridors, a decision that may benefit the Huntly area but worries clubs in established suburbs like California Gully and Kangaroo Flat. The latter’s clubrooms were closed for two weeks in June after a failed sewer line forced the cancellation of three junior matches.

Federal funding through the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program, which allocated $500 million nationally in 2024-25, has so far directed $220,000 to Bendigo’s sport facilities, enough to resurface one tennis court at the Bendigo Lawn Tennis Association but not to address the association’s wider drainage problems.

Community leagues are now exploring private sponsorship and crowd-funding. The Bendigo Junior Football League launched a “Game Day” partnership with a Bendigo-based construction company in May, raising $15,000 for portable toilet hire at grounds without permanent amenities.

The City of Greater Bendigo is due to release its updated Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Plan in September 2026. The plan is expected to prioritise projects based on a new “community need index” that weighs participation growth, population density and current facility condition. For now, volunteers at Jack Findlay Oval will keep a plumber on speed dial, and hope the hot water holds.