How the Bendigo showgrounds project became a sports rort (without the sport)
- Dale Webster
- 1 day ago
- 13 min read
Updated: 2 hours ago
CONSULTATION for the 2019 Bendigo Showgrounds Master Plan consisted of two workshops with the organisers of the project, a phone call about the Swap Meet, discussions with Energy Breakthrough and cycling clubs about potential future use and an online survey that attracted just 21 responses.
It was supposed to be an “extensive community consultation with diverse user groups so that the future vision (of the showgrounds) meets their needs”.
The Victorian Government, who coughed up more than $73,000 to the City of Greater Bendigo for the project, should ask for its money back.
Until last week, no one outside a closed circle around the project had seen the master plan and all requests for access to it since the Bendigo Showgrounds Redevelopment Project was put out for public consultation in March had been fended off with great alacrity by the City of Greater Bendigo, Bendigo Agricultural Show Society, Development Victoria, Sport and Recreation Victoria and the State Government in general.
Criticism of the failure to hold a proper consultation process as part of Sport and Recreation Victoria project has been front and centre since it was revealed on March 18 that major works had already been put out to tender without significant user groups knowing anything about what was being planned.
The news that there would be no opportunity to have a say on the key elements of the redevelopment was delivered just after they were shown to the public for the first time during a webinar being held as part of an official consultation round for the project.
Representatives from project manager Development Victoria looked visibly uncomfortable when told by participants representing key user groups that none of the work outlined had been run by them previously and that the proposed arena works would jeopardise the running of equestrian events.
Development Victoria’s response then and since has been that the required consultation for the Clause 52.3 planning application that had already been started was held with the Bendigo Agricultural Show Society “as the venue operator and representative for their user groups”.
This raised the question of whether appropriate consultation supported the development of the showgrounds master plan and whether it could be considered representative of the views of a “diverse range of user groups” as intended.
Last week, The Regional obtained a copy of the document and after reviewing its contents, it is understandable why it has been kept hidden from public view.
To understand the problem the master plan creates for the project, it is necessary to look at the whole process from start to finish.
The beginning
In March 2019, the Minister for Regional Development Jaclyn Symes announced that the City of Greater Bendigo had been awarded a $50,643 grant from the Stronger Regional Communities Plan to support the creation of a master plan and business case for the redevelopment of the Prince of Wales Showgrounds.
Ms Symes named the City of Greater Bendigo as the project leader and said both the council and Bendigo Agriculture Show Society would also contribute $25,000 each towards the work.
“The grant will enable the City of Greater Bendigo to undertake extensive community consultation with diverse user groups, so that the future vision (of the showgrounds) meets their needs,” Ms Symes said.
The City of Greater Bendigo was awarded another grant of $22,500 in the next round of the Stronger Regional Communities Plan in 2019-2020 also for the master plan, bringing the total State Government contribution for the work council would undertake on the project to $73,143.
The master plan and business case was completed by the end of 2019 but it has never been released to the public.
On August 16, 2022, Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell, who had been shown the document, spoke about the Bendigo showgrounds in parliament, advocating for Regional Development funding for the first two stages of a nine-stage project outlined in the master plan.
She specifically mentioned the construction of a market pavilion incorporating an indoor market hall, a market event space, storage areas including cold storage, catering facilities and covered market stall spaces.
Ms Lovell’s bid to secure the regional development funding was not successful but another opportunity to pay for works at the showgrounds had opened up in April when it was announced that Victoria had won the rights to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Bendigo had been named as one of the regional hubs to host events under a regional delivery model and along with councils in Geelong, Ballarat and Gippsland had been asked by the State Government to consider “legacy” projects that could be funded as part of the Games but would continue to be of benefit to the community once they were over.
Bendigo’s legacy plan was adopted at the September 26, 2022, council meeting.
In a report titled “2026 Commonwealth Games legacy and resourcing”, then chief executive Craig Niemann told councillors the Games were “an opportunity to bring forward and implement ideas and plans that have been worked on with our community for many years”.
“In most instances, the high-level planning and consultation has already been completed,” he said.
“Careful engagement over many years has told us what our community needs and now is the time to act and accomplish our shared vision for the future of Greater Bendigo and the wider region.
“A number of community groups, sporting clubs and other organisations have requested to have projects included as legacy priorities … it is deliberately intended for this document to focus on the outcomes that council would like to see achieved and some higher profile flagship projects, such as the Bendigo Art Gallery expansion, the Bendigo Low-Line safe transport connection and further expansion of the 100Gb network.
“Having an approved legacy plan … decreases the risk of initiatives that are not priorities being funded.”
Mr Neimann did not mention the showgrounds in his report but “funding for the development of the Bendigo Showgrounds” was listed in the legacy plan.
Further detail of what the showgrounds development would entail was revealed in City of Greater Bendigo’s “Investment Prospectus: Priority Projects for government investment”, which was adopted at the same meeting.
The prospectus highlighted two projects that were from the 2019 Bendigo Showgrounds Master Plan:
Proposed upgrades include a new $6.5 million arena for junior and women’s sport, in-ground irrigation and lighting upgrade, a multipurpose sports pavilion including player changerooms, function room, umpire rooms, toilets, kiosk/canteen and a covered terraced viewing area; and,
The exhibition buildings and market precinct require a $2.9 million investment in covered market stall spaces, solar conversion, kitchen and equipment upgrades, sealed surfaces, gardens and landscaping, toilets and storage.
In a busy night for councilors, they also approved the creation of an additional director-level position to lead Commonwealth Games coordination and preparations, a role that was to go to now City of Greater Bendigo chief executive Andrew Cooney.
At this point in time the intension – as outlined in the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions’ business case submitted to cabinet in March 2022 – had always been for Bendigo to host basketball 3x3, lawn bowls, netball, shooting, squash and tennis, with cricket and cycling to be shared.
When the list was finalised in October 2022, squash, netball, lawn bowls, 3x3 basketball and track cycling had made the cut but there was one surprising addition – table tennis.
The announcement was accompanied by the news that Bendigo would get a new pavilion at the Bendigo Showgrounds.
Until then, no one knew Geelong, which had been allocated the event when the Games were announced in April, had lost hosting rights.
The president of the Bendigo and District Table Tennis Association, Gary Warnest, would later tell a senate inquiry into the Games handling and cancellation that the first he heard of the proposal was when he got a call from Mr Cooney inviting him to a photo opportunity to make the announcement.
Mr Warnest said he was away at a competition in Darwin with the president of Table Tennis Australia and the Geelong committee and that none of them were aware the change had been made or had been involved in any discussions.
He was embarrassed by the development and concerned that the Geelong association would think he had tried to undermine the opportunity for them to get a new venue.
The Bendigo and District Table Tennis Association has a very good purpose-built venue in Eaglehawk but Mr Warnest said he knew it would not be big enough to host the Commonwealth Games competition and had only put in an expression of interest for training events.
After returning from Darwin, Mr Warnest met Mr Cooney and was told a new “show court pavilion” would be built at the showgrounds.
“I expressed my concerns that the pavilion would be built more for its suitability for later use rather than being fit for purpose as a table tennis competition venue,” he told senators in Bendigo in August 2023.
“No building plans or documents had been sighted. I asked about legacy equipment following the games and I was told that no information was available or even being considered while efforts concentrating on the buildings were going ahead.
“As (of) 27 June this year not even the table tennis building site had been confirmed.
“It is evident that there was little, if any, sport consultation or communication happening in the lead-up to the event.”
The 2026 Commonwealth Games were cancelled on July 18, 2023, with the Premier Dan Andrews citing cost blowouts.
In a bid to save face, the State Government announced a $2 billion package to ensure “every one of the permanent new and upgraded sporting infrastructure projects planned as part of the Games will still proceed”.
A new exhibition shed at the Bendigo showgrounds was among 17 “permanent sporting infrastructure projects” the Government said it would still fund across the state.
Scope changes
This is where things start to get interesting.
The councils responsible for the 17 projects were permitted to “re-scope”, with no requirement to stick to the original proposals.
The City of Greater Geelong, for example, asked for the money to be re-directed to new Regional Indoor Sports and Events Centre it said “would provide better value for public money”, a request that was accepted.
At Ballarat, the passenger lifts at the railway station, which along with the Bendigo Showgrounds exhibition shed no longer had a sporting purpose due to the cancellation of the Games, ended up being move to another, more appropriate funding stream.
Discussions on “re-scoping” the Bendigo projects took place in late 2023.
According to a report presented to the City of Greater Bendigo council meeting on April 22, 2024, the council, Sport and Recreation Victoria and “key stakeholders of the venues” were involved.
Separate discussions also occurred between the City of Greater Bendigo, Sport and Recreation Victoria and Development Victoria at this time.
It was decided the new scope for the Bendigo Showgrounds Redevelopment Project that is now being rolled out would include the redevelopment of the arena, a new multipurpose pavilion and upgrades to all four entrances and perimeter fencing.
The work for this project and the 15 other remaining sporting legacy projects was to be funded by Sport and Recreation Victoria under the Regional Sports Infrastructure Program based on “previously established need”.
This is where it is important to remember that no-one except a select inner circle had ever viewed the 2019 Bendigo Showgrounds Master Plan.
All the outside world knew was that it contained a pavilion that was capable of hosting a Commonwealth Games-sized table tennis competition – possibly the sports pavilion outlined in the investment prospectus.
What is known now is that the table tennis was instead to be staged in what was always planned to be a market pavilion, the same one Wendy Lovell was trying to secure Regional Development finding to build.
While in hindsight this may look a tad dodgy, there is no real issue with the City of Greater Bendigo trying to get its market shed as part of the Commonwealth Games funding, other than the ethics of pulling the rug out from under Geelong.
The State Government was actively encouraging councils to use the event to secure “legacy” infrastructure and at the time, there was a Commonwealth Games-related sporting use for the building, but that disappeared the moment the Games were cancelled.
As Gary Warnest told the senate inquiry, “We were never promised a facility. We never expected a facility … the only thing I'd tried to organise was an expression of interest to gain a cut using our facility as a country training venue”.
At the re-scoping stage, the City of Greater Bendigo had a decision to make.
As flagged in its investment prospectus, there was a genuine sporting pavilion in the showgrounds master plan but, because the plan had never been publicly sighted, there was no clear understanding outside closed doors whether the pavilion being built for the table tennis was the same or different to the one referenced in the prospectus.
It is now known the sports pavilion is a different building to the market shed and its proposed location is on the other side of the arena in the equestrian precinct.
The pavilion would be enormous benefit to hundreds of mainly female equestrian sport participants who desperately need the upgraded shower and change facilities it would provide.
However, instead of changing the scope of the project to build the sports pavilion, which was part of the arena upgrade works in the master plan, the City of Greater Bendigo decided to continue to put forward the market pavilion that no longer had a sporting purpose as the Regional Sports Infrastructure Program project.
Whether council even paused to consider changing the scope to the more appropriate building works will probably never be known, but it had nothing to lose by maintaining its course to get the bigger and more expensive market shed under the guise of a “multi-purpose pavilion” using this pathway.
Any repercussions for using sports infrastructure funding for a building never intended to be used for sport was not their problem, with the report stating that Development Victoria would carry the risk in relation to scope sign-off.
With its market pavilion to gain and liability for the decision sitting with the State Government, council passed the motion to accept the approved scope of works and endorse the delivery model on April 22, 2024.
As part of the delivery model, consultation at a local level was again to be the job of the City of Greater Bendigo.
As evidenced by the reaction of stakeholders during the Development Victoria webinar however, the major works were put out to tender in September last year without any community consultation.
This brings us back to Development Victoria’s explanation that the show society represented the views of its user groups.
The master plan reveals whether this is truly the case, particularly in reference to one of its most important and longest-established user groups, the horse community.
Persona non grata
There is good reason that the 2019 Bendigo Showgrounds Master Plan and Business Case has never been released to the public.
It is a document that could prove highly embarrassing when read by stakeholders from equestrian user groups who would soon see that it had been written from the premise that horses have no place in the future vision the showgrounds.
Equestrian activities barely rate a mention across the 95 pages.
When future revenue options are being discussed, attracting more equestrian events is not considered as an option despite the document acknowledging the showground’s competitive advantage of having more than twice the number of stables than its nearest rival.
In a matrix put together by authors Urban Enterprise, trade shows, exhibitions and the annual show are considered as the showgrounds' primary purpose, with equine, livestock and agriculture events only a secondary use.
Where the future sports pavilion in the equestrian precinct is discussed, equestrian competitors are not even acknowledged as potential users or beneficiaries.
The document confirms the show society is behind plans to reduce the size of the arena, with the committee telling Urban Enterprise that it wanted it to be “smaller and more functional”.
The show society also wants to permanently remove the stables, with the plan suggesting the area be turned into a “gardens event precinct and sound shell” that could be hired out as a venue for activities including “wine and food picnic events”, “circuses”, “outdoor concerts” and “additional swap meet sites”.
The plan justifies the removal of the stables by saying there are other facilities at Elmore and Tatura and equine events at the showgrounds are "limited".
It also says stabling is not required because camping at the showgrounds overnight is not permitted and that means horse shows are only day events (before going on to say that once the stables are gone the area can be used for overnight camping for non-equestrian event organisers and staff).
“How will this opportunity increase viability?” is a question posed by the plan’s authors. “(By eliminating) any future stable maintenance and refurbishment or replacement costs”.
The plan suggests using portable stables for any equine events that are still held at the grounds but does not state who would cover the cost of bringing them to Bendigo each time and where they could be set up after every square inch of the showgrounds is developed as a tourism and events complex.
The wash-up
Through the Bendigo Showgrounds Master Plan, the biggest and most active user group that sits hand-in-glove with the Bendigo Agricultural Show Society’s primary reason for existence has been absolutely and unceremoniously shafted.
It is understandable now why no consideration at all has been given to the impacts of an arena re-design on horse events, or why equestrian users were not asked if they would prefer a sports pavilion and the stables replaced to a more costly shed in the market area.
After reading the master plan, Development Victoria can no longer maintain its position that the consultation necessary for the current planning process has been completed because the show society was representing its user groups.
The show society was instead actively undermining equestrian users, corrupting the consultation process with its own agenda.
What happens next comes down to just two points:
Legacy project or not, grant funding should not be misused on projects that don’t qualify for the funding stream; and,
A Clause 52.3 planning application cannot be approved without proof a genuine consultation before the major works were put out to tender.
The Bendigo Showgrounds Redevelopment planning process is legally unsound.
In the wash-up of this schemozzle, the three organisations that have put their name to the Bendigo Showgrounds Master Plan – the Bendigo Agricultural Show Society, the City of Greater Bendigo and Development Victoria – need reminding what a showgrounds is for.
The Federal Government has put a lot of money into ensuring the survival of the Bendigo Agricultural Show through a funding program aimed at bridging the divide between country and city.
The show society will probably be looking for more funding from this source in the future.
An agricultural showgrounds that is no longer suitable for, or welcomes, horse events has lost its purpose.
Here’s the master plan, it’s time this dirty little secret saw the light of day.
Letters to the editor will be accepted on this issue: contact@theregional.com.au
Dale Webster was named the Walkley Foundation’s Freelance Journalist of the Year in 2022 and is also a Melbourne Press Club Quill Award winner.
Stories on The Regional’s website are free to read and always will be.
If you enjoyed this article you can show your support by joining our mailing list (either by filling out the form below or sending us a message).
We'd also get very excited if you put a "like" on our Facebook page.
Comments