As women’s sport booms nationally and state-wide, the City of Mandurah are jumping on the bandwagon and making moves to support that significant growth locally.
At their March meeting, councillors discussed several community sport infrastructure projects that aim to adapt male-tailored facilities to cater for women.
In late 2017, city officers conducted a review of its nine change room facilities to gain an understanding of their existing functionality and capabilities to accommodate the growth in women’s sport.
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The objective of the audit was to identify those facilities that are currently suitable for women participation, those that may require minor improvements and the facilities that need to be prioritised for future upgrade.
Of the nine, three facilities didn’t have female or unisex change rooms including Rushton Main Reserve, Falcon Reserve and Coote Reserve.
Women participating in sporting activities at Thomson Street Netball and Merlin Street Reserve could only use unisex change rooms.
Rushton North Reserve, Meadow Springs Sports Facility, Bortolo Reserve and Peelwood Reserve had an equal number of change rooms for men and women.
In 2016 and 2017, the total number of female participants in organised sport and recreation clubs in Western Australia was 350,155.
This is an increase of over 50 per cent from 232,873 participants in 2013/14.
“This growth is now starting to be felt here in Mandurah with a number of women’s competitions already in place and many State Sporting Association’s planning to launch new formats as early as 2018/19,” the report stated.
The report recommended that council look to implement a staged refurbishment of its change room areas over the coming years.
Those refurbishments would initially prioritise the upgrade of the City’s older existing amenities to facilitate female participants.
However the recommendations suggested the long term objective would be for all change room facilities to be unisex in their design and function.
When the topic was discussed at a council meeting on March 13, deputy mayor Caroline Knight and East Ward councillor Lynn Rodgers spoke on the issue.
Both women noted their support for the growth of women’s sport in the region and agreed the recommendations where a step in the right direction for local community sport.
The recommendations noting the refurbishment needs will be voted on at council’s March 27 meeting.
The report was issued by people and communities director Lesley Wilkinson and authored by Natalie Garnsworthy.
To read the recommendations and statistics on the growth of women’s sport in the region visit the City of Mandurah’s website and view the agenda from council’s March 13 meeting.