City of Ballarat councillor Samantha McIntosh and Mayor John Phillips opened the centre’s new $405,000 change rooms amidst throngs of junior footballers, netballers and soccer players on Sunday.

The change rooms are billed as the $1 million project’s centre piece, despite the upgrade also featuring a new netball court, irrigation and drainage to the soccer pitches and a lighting upgrade to the football ground.

Cr McIntosh lauded the impact the change rooms will have on female athletes, who were previously using cars as a means to get changed into sporting gear.

Mr Phillips said a change room for women was well overdue.

“For a long time they (women) weren’t being catered for – it’s just the way it was but it should never have been like that,” he said.

“Women are changing in cars and virtually every spot they could find with a bit of privacy, and that wasn’t good enough.”

Council contributed $305,000 to the rooms, with the state government throwing in $100,000 as part of the Community Facilities Funding Program.

Soccer players will have priority access to the change rooms, which can be split into two separate sections and are also AFL compliant.

Mr Phillips said a tender is still out for the completion of lighting for the football ground.

“Contracts are currently out for tender for the lighting upgrades to the Southern Oval,” he said.

The lighting is approximated at $250,000, with $80,000 set to be contributed by the state government’s Sport and Recreation Victoria body.

Irrigation and drainage to the soccer pitches accounted for $500,000 of the project, while a general power upgrade accounted for a further $70,000.

The new netball court, alongside relevant lighting, was billed at $240,000.

However, Phillips said there is work yet to be done.

“We’ve still got a bit of work to identify issues where water is pooling and creating mud, but drainage has been put in,” he said.

“We’ll work on that to get rid of the mud in future years.

“We’ve still got work to do to bring this up to a high quality fantastic place, and we’ll continue doing it.”

“It’s fabulous to have all these things coming together. 

“It will bring more people to the area – it will enhance the area.”

Lake Wendouree’s CE Brown Reserve was upgraded earlier this year, with upgrades to Alfredton Oval, Marty Busch Reserve and City Oval also scheduled.