On Friday 9 April, the Eastern Suburbs Hockey Club’s new home was officially opened by Phil Reeves the Minister for Child Safety and Sport. The facility is located at the Clem Jones Centre and works have included the development of a fully lit state-of-the-art water based synthetic hockey field with electronic scoreboard, dugouts and scorer’s box; amenities facility with home and away changerooms, official’s room, storage and canteen; large deck extension overlooking the field; additional shaded decks, terracing and landscaping.

ROSS Planning is proud to have worked with the Club in site identification, the preparation of the feasibility study and business plan and the development of a quality funding application that was successful through the State Government’s Sport and Recreation Services Infrastructure Program.

We are very proud of Kate who recently picked up the QUT “Dean's List for Excellent Academic Performance” which acknowledges students who have achieved a semester grade point average of 6.5 or above (and Kate got straight 7s!).

Kate is studying part-time towards a Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning and is doing extremely well.

Congratulations Kate on a fantastic effort.

ROSS Planning is pleased to be again working with Southern Downs Regional Council after completing sport and recreation plans for the former shires of Warwick and Stanthorpe as well as a master plan for Australiana Park in recent years.

This time, Council has engaged ROSS Planning to work with the community and sporting clubs to develop a master plan for Condamine River Parks—Queens Park, St Marks Ovals, Federation Park and Rotary Park.

During March and April extensive consultation will be undertaken with the community, sport and recreation groups, councillors and staff so check back here, or on Council’s website, for more details as the time draws closer.

Western Downs Regional Council has launched a project to develop the Western Downs 2050 Community Plan and has invited community input to identify a vision for the region's future. The plan will set out the priorities of the region for the next forty years. It will be developed in consultation with key partners and the wider community to take a long-term view of the services and responsibilities of Council and all key stakeholders.

SGS Economics and Planning are the lead consultants together with ROSS Planning and Laurel Johnson Planning Consultants. ROSS Planning will prepare the sport and recreation component of the study.

The project has several ways for community members to participate. These include a website, a community discussion forum (blog), a written survey, resource kit of fact sheets, and a series of local community workshops in towns throughout the municipality.

Western Downs 2050 will be the first Community Plan for the municipality, which was formed after Queensland's recent council amalgamations. The municipality has a growing population of approximately 30,000 and an expanding economy based on agriculture, manufacturing and resource diversification.

ROSS Planning has been selected to undertake Sport and Recreation Plans for McKinlay Shire Council (Julia Creek) and Carpentaria Shire Council (Normanton and Karumba).

Kate has been to Julia Creek already and managed to be there when the temperature got to 49 degrees (and she is a cold climate sort of girl)! Scott and Dion will be heading to Normanton in February to start on that plan.

We are excited to be developing plans for these two communities and look forward to meeting with the local communities to establish the issues and priorities in sport and recreation.