The Clarendon community will have a new place to band together almost three years on from fires that devastated the region.
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The new Clarendon Community Centre is nearing completion, with final work on the building’s interior to be completed in coming weeks.
Clarendon Recreation Reserve committee of management president Trevor Smith said members of the Clarendon community have not had a place to meet for more than 30 years since the Clarendon Hall closed.
“During the fires there was nowhere for anyone to meet for information, we were going to Scotsburn all the time,” he said.
The hub will be somewhere for the community to get together and socialise other community groups will have a place to meet.
- Trevor Smith, Clarendon Recreation Reserve committee
Minister for Emergency Services James Merlino announced the Moorabool Shire Council would receive a $300,000 grant to deliver the Clarendon Community Centre project in September 2016.
The centre, located at Clarendon Recreation Reserve, will include a new building with kitchen facilities, a social area, toilets and amenities when it is completed later this month.
Stage two of the project will involve work to upgrade the Clarendon tennis courts.
Mr Smith said a community barbecue will be held at the new facility in December, before it is officially opened early next year.
“The community is looking forward to having the facility. There has been a lot of interest,” he said.
“Because we have no primary school in the township there has been nowhere for people to meet and get to know their neighbours.
“The hub will be somewhere for the community to get together and socialise, and other community groups will have a place to meet. In the past if anyone needed to meet in the town they have had to have it in their own homes.”
Bushfires tore through Clarendon and Scotsburn in 2015, burning more than 4600 hectares of land on December 19 and 20.
The fire destroyed 12 homes as well as dozens of sheds throughout Scotsburn, Clarendon, Elaine and Durham Lead.
The recovery effort continues with community members and the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority working to restore and revegetate bushfire affected areas.
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