Netballers were thrilled to start their 2025 season in Mundijong with a schmick new playing surface, after years of artfully dodging ever-widening cracks.
The Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale recently completed upgrades to the playing surface at Mundijong Netball Courts, including application of a new surface layer and fresh line markings.
New goal posts on two of the courts have also been installed, along with new fencing on the east and south side of the courts.
And this week new signage will be installed to indicate the ACROD parking bays, and rubbish bins will be installed in preparation for the start of the winter season.
The entire works package for the Mundijong courts will come in at just over $120,000.
Serpentine Jarrahdale Netball Association President Aleesha Denholm said players and parents were “really appreciative” of the work that had been done.
“The feedback we’ve received has been really positive, with players happy to be playing on a safe surface after so many years,” she said.
But there’s still a couple of outstanding jobs to finish before the shire can down tools.
“The courts look really great, but we’re still waiting on the fence works to be completed,” Aleesha said.
“Not having entrance ways made a huge difference in access to the toilet and canteen facilities over the ANZAC weekend.”
Shire President Rob Coales has confirmed that “there is still more work to be done to ensure that the shire is providing the best possible playing environment”.
He said “new access openings and the installation of a fence on the western side of the courts” would be completed “as soon as possible after the ANZAC weekend, along with the clearing of the courts’ drainage channel”.
“We listened to the community’s concerns about the condition of the Mundijong Netball Courts, particularly around safety, and acted to make urgent upgrades,” he said.
“The shire values all feedback provided by the courts’ users, and will continue to liaise with the relevant community sporting clubs to ensure that upgrades to the courts are timely, and to the best benefit of users and spectators.
“We will continue to deliver further upgrades in consultation with the courts’ main users.”
The shire is also continuing to advocate for funding to relocate netball to a state-of-the-art netball centre at Keirnan Park.
But after a failure to attract a funding commitment for that project from Labor during the state election, and so far no parties committing any more funding for Keirnan Park during the federal election campaign, that dream could be a while away yet.
Liberal incumbent for Canning Andrew Hastie has made the only funding commitments in SJ during this election campaign, including $2.4 million to further upgrade the current netball facilities at Mundijong.
“That would be really great,” Aleesha said. “So, I’ll guess we’ll see on Saturday how that turns out.”
