For over 20 years, we have been making the best moments of BMX racing at our club’s current location in Berriedale. Whilst we’re successful in creating a harmonic and family atmosphere among all the members of our club, our good neighbour, MONA, needs to expand its area. As a result, our club needs to move to another location.
The Southern City BMX Club (SCBMXC) Board has been working and coordinating with the Glenorchy Council and the Sorell Council regarding this location transfer.
Situated in one of the fastest-growing suburbs in Southern Tasmania, we are moving down to a big sporting precinct area in Sorell. Pembroke Park is surrounded by different sports facilities including a new indoor stadium, skate park, football ovals, soccer oval, and netball courts. Considering that this is a family oriented area, the Sorell Council is planning to utilise this big sporting precinct for communities and families to try out and compete in all these various activities.
Southern City BMX Club President, Patrick Berry, believes that moving to this new location is advantageous on the club’s end. “I think there’s going to be great opportunities for crossover. Being located amongst all these other sporting precincts means that when we’re having our race days, there’s a larger opportunity as well that people will come to see what BMX is all about,” Mr Berry claimed.
“We’re hopeful that this move will result in gaining more members over time because we’re going to be in a better position with all the facilities around us and a lot better, brand new track with new equipment and facilities,” he added.
Apart from these, there are new essential establishments that have been built around the area, too. A new high school, shopping centre, and even homes were recently built to cater to every family around the zone. Essentially, with all the developments in the suburb, we’re hoping to witness the area grow even larger, encouraging more people to move to the area. Correspondingly, we could also expect our club to grow even bigger in the next few months and years.
Design-wise, our club along with the Sorell Council have been working with Tracks Australia for the final look of the track. In fact, we have already signed off on the design during the last committee meeting. The next steps will include obtaining a cost estimate by putting the design out to tender, followed by negotiations on the budget, before construction can commence.
We fully understand that there will be some downtime as we take a big step moving to the new track, but rest assured that the Southern City BMX Club will still be in its full function moving forward. The committee will work with its members to try to find opportunities for the club to still do some activities.
“While we’re waiting for the new track to be constructed, we’ll still try to run some training sessions in another format without a track and we’ll try to still have club fun days and do some activities together to keep the spirit of the club alive,” Mr Berry ended.
The SCBMXC perceives this as a short-term pain for a long-term gain. Certainly, we will do everything in our power to help the council facilitate the move as quickly as possible. We’ll also keep our lines open and keep all our valued members posted about any updates about this.