MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire will spend $260,000 on the Hastings Club building so it can be repurposed into a space for community groups. The funding announcement was confirmed at the council’s 20 May meeting, and has been allocated in the shire’s 2025-26 budget capital works program. However, the funding falls well short of the $1m being initially proposed in the budget, that councillors voted in favour of at their 22 April meeting to “ensure the long-term survival” of the building.
The Hastings Club, founded in 1967, was forced into liquidation in April 2024 after facing crippling debts associated with its gaming machines. It reopened again under a new entity, the Hastings Community and Sports Club Inc, but a significant water leak ultimately forced its closure last October. That entity was placed into liquidation in March this year after failed attempts to garner shire support (Liquidators called in again as the Hastings Club shuts its doors, The News 1/4/25). Its shutdown has left a void in the community, many of whom used the facility through local sports-based clubs as well as many community groups.
The shire is yet to provide specific details about what the refurbishment will include or how long the project will take. At the shire’s 22 April meeting, mayor Cr Anthony Marsh said the “goal is to get the community back in there as soon as possible” because “the Hastings Club is clearly going to be a future hub for bringing those people back in”.
The former chairman of the Hastings Community and Sports Club, David Gibbs, said he understood that the shire was not committed to trying to save the social entity. “It’s bitterly disappointing. The Hastings Club was not just a building. It’s not like going to a hotel. It’s just different,” he said.
According to Gibbs, the club had difficulty “getting a straight answer” from the shire since April last year regarding its vision for the building’s future use. In terms of restoration work funding, he said there was still a huge amount of work to be done. “To be able to use the building for a number of community facilities, it has to be able to be separated into rooms,” said Gibbs. This would require the air conditioning being zoned for each room, with much of the air conditioning plant needing replacement. It is also believed the electrical switchboard may need replacement to be compliant. “Then there’s the former gaming room. Again, that would mean walls and doors partitioned or sliding doors or something so it can be separated.”
He added the two bars in the bistro, the commercial kitchen, cool rooms and a freezer would need to be removed before the affected floors, walls and ceilings fixed. “If you’re going to be spending $260k now, it’s superficial and it won’t go very far. It might make the building usable as a meeting place,” Gibbs said.
“We have asked the council what’s actually the bang for the buck? Our wish was always for the shire to support the existing club in its role of providing wide-ranging benefit to the community. We proposed a more cost effective way of achieving this but felt we never received a genuine hearing.”
First published in the Westernport News – 28 May 2025
