Redevelopment of Mill Park Leisure Centre

The much anticipated redevelopment of the Mill Park Leisure will commence from mid-2018, injecting $25 million to completely upgrade fitness and aquatic areas.

The complete rebuild will include the addition of new fully accessible pools and water play features, enlarged gym and fitness program areas, outdoor fitness, family play and BBQ areas. The expansion of the building will also provide a new front foyer, reception, retail area and café together with revamped accessible car parking and coach drop off points.

The upgrade also includes the introduction of a new disability access ramp into the current 25 metre pool, new meeting space, redeveloped occasional care area and multi-use program area, all new amenities including family change village, multipurpose school change room and accessible toilets and changing places toilets.

Within walking distance of South Morang train and bus station, the redevelopment fulfils community feedback that showed there was significant demand from the community for it.

Council last night resolved to commence redevelopment works from mid July 2018 and elected to close the centre in recognition of the significant impact and risk to users, to complete construction earlier and to provide financial savings.

Mayor Kris Pavlidis said that the designs were completed in consultation with community groups, individuals and the YMCA Whittlesea, who currently manage the facility on behalf of Council.

“This is an important community recreational facility and this investment will completely transform the Mill Park Leisure Centre to a state-of-the-art aquatic and fitness hub,” said Cr Pavlidis. “This is not a small scale upgrade, it is a complete and complex rebuild.”  

“The centre will be a major construction site during the upgrade and this will have significant impact on the visitor’s experience if it remained open due to noise, dust, vibration, limited car parking and many parts not accessible to the public. It would be difficult to maintain operations and pose a safety risk.

“Council considered at great length whether a partial or full closure was required during the construction and we have chosen to fully close the facility.  This will allow the community to access a fully operational and upgraded leisure centre much earlier than if it was constructed in stages and reduce costs significantly.”

Further demonstrating the importance of this redevelopment; the State Government has contributed $5 million towards the project ($2 million from the Growing Suburbs Fund and $3 million from the Community Sport Infrastructure Fund).