93-year-old tennis club “deleted”: Eastern suburbs sport groups push back against plans for $17 million redevelopment of Walker Park

After 93 years of helping build local tennis talent, the Mitcham Tennis Club has been met with a shocking blow, with Whitehorse Council recommending it either call it quits or merge with another club to make way for a multi-million dollar redevelopment of Nunawading’s Walker Park.

✍️How we got here: Whitehorse Council’s draft master plan for a multi-million dollar redevelopment of Nunawading’s Walker Park was met with a tepid response from local sporting clubs at a recent council meeting.

• The first round of community and stakeholder consultation ran from November 2023 to March 2024 and helped shape the final draft plan.

🗺️The plan: Endorsed at last week’s council meeting, the draft plan outlines 25 projects, including replacing the existing Indoor Sports Complex with a brand-new, two-storey gymnastics and sports centre, as well as re-purposing the existing tennis court space for other community benefits.

💰The cost: Council officers projected the total cost of the project would be $17.4 million, excluding GST.

• The cost to remove the existing tennis courts and public toilets and construct the new gymnastics and sports centre was estimated to be $13 million, but works would not begin until July 2031 at the earliest.

• Funding would have to come from council’s budget and reserves, grants from the State and Federal Government and potential partnerships with tenant clubs and sporting groups.

🎾Net losses proposed: Council officers recommended the Mitcham Tennis Club either amalgamate with another club or disband, citing “a trend of low and declining membership”.

• However, club president Douglas Evans said despite seeing low membership numbers during Covid, the 93-year-old club’s membership had doubled from 42 to 84 players since welcoming a “new and energetic” committee in 2024.

• Evans said the committee was surprised to learn the club was “deleted” from the draft plan only four days before it went before council.

🗓️Too long to wait: A major concern raised by other club representatives was that the completion of the proposed works would be too far away to respond to growing participation numbers, especially in women’s sport.

🤸Leaps and bounds: Nunawading Gymnastics and Sports Club pathways and development manager, Rachel McNally, said the club has outgrown its current site. 

• Nunawading Gymnastics and Sports Club currently has 558 members with 33 on the waitlist.

• 🗣️“We continue to grow and meet the needs of the community and we need a facility that will support us in that growth,” said McNally. “Without this ongoing support, I fear that the club will need to restrict member numbers and cancel classes.”

To have your say on the draft plan, visit www.whitehorse.vic.gov.au/about-council/have-your-say