Crowds gathered to celebrate the opening of the club. Photos: Chloe Sipeki
Last Friday, the ribbon was cut to open the redeveloped Esperance-Goldfields Surf Lifesaving club house, declaring the end of a 10-year project.
Club president Kelly Buttle reminisced on the project and the changes that had made the club a much nicer place to be.
“I can remember coming here and patrolling and going, ‘I can’t even open this roller door without getting rust in my eye, why aren’t we doing something about this place?’” she said.
“Now we’ve got automatic doors that open with a button.”
The club’s makeover also features an inviting, outdoor green space, three-bay storage facility, elevator and all new interiors in the club house including bathrooms and kitchen.
Ms Buttle said the redevelopment would work to enhance each of the four pillars of SLS: surf sports, nippers, education and lifesaving.
As well as benefitting members who were already a part of the club, she said she hoped the redevelopment would attract more members.
“Hopefully it promotes more volunteers into surf lifesaving because it’s a nice place to come and volunteer now,” she said.
“We’ve now got over 360 members signed up.
“We’re growing every year.”
Ms Buttle said the biggest challenge had been securing funding to complete the whole project.
In the end, the community came through to support the surf club, allowing the club to put the finishing touches on its sparkling, new headquarters.
“This has all come from a lot of community support and grant programs along the way,” she said.
“Every little bit helps.”
On the arrival of the opening day, Ms Buttle said she was looking forward to kicking back and enjoying the years of hard work.
“The actual redevelopment has been going on since 2015, but the board made the decision in 2019 to upgrade rather than knock down and start again,” she said.
“Come 2020, we started with a plan, something everyone had to agree with, and going forward that way.
“It’s an absolute joy to have the condition of occupancy permit now granted. An absolute relief.”
On Friday last week, surf club members and project contributors gathered to celebrate the finished redevelopment.
Inaugural surf club life member Alan Read cut the ribbon, officially opening the redeveloped club.
