Minister for Community Sport Ros Spence joined Mitchell Shire councillors and Wallan Tennis Club members on Wednesday to open the $300,000 Wallan Tennis Courts upgrade project.
The project involved major base works to fix the large depression running across courts one to four causing an uneven playing surface.
Perimeter, court and underground drainage was also installed to fix current drainage issues along with new synthetic surfacing.
Mitchell Shire Council contributed $75,000 to the project with $225,000 through the Sport and Recreation Victoria’s 2022 Local Sports Infrastructure Fund Community Facilities stream.
Ms Spence, also Member for Kalkallo, said she was thrilled to have another ‘terrific partnership’ with Mitchell Shire Council.
“Thankfully we’ve been able to get this done for the community’s benefit because I hear the courts before were not in good shape at all,” she said.
“Now this won’t just provide a more enjoyable experience for people here, but it will also be a much safer experience and stop people being unable to use these courts when there is wet weather so it’s a really great outcome.
“What we also hope comes from this outcome is a participation increase in community sport because that’s what all of our investment is all about.
“I wanted to say thank you so much to Mitchell Shire Council for such a great partnership and I want to say congratulations and thank you to all of the hardworking volunteers at the tennis club because it’s your advocacy that actually gets these projects underway in the first place.
“This is a really good outcome. We really should celebrate it and we really want to boost that participation even more.”

Mitchell Shire Mayor Fiona Stevens said the upgrades encouraged community involvement.
“These facilities encourage people to get out and about even if they’re not tennis players,” she said.
“They can come down, they can watch, they can have a cup of tea and they can socialise so I think this is the value of these sorts of facilities – not just the physical component but the interaction and the social component.
“Hopefully the community of Wallan will pick up on that and come and enjoy, if not pick up a racquet as well.”
Wallan Tennis Club president James Viskovic thanked council, Ms Spence and the government for their support.
“The continued investment in these facilities allows us to provide an excellent playing field for our local community,” he said.
“We would like to also acknowledge council’s continual support of tennis across the whole shire.”
The works come after competition standard lighting was installed on courts five and six, with lighting on courts one to four also scheduled to be upgraded from metal halide to more energy efficient LED in February next year.
Wallan Tennis Centre currently has six lit courts used for coaching, training, mid-week competition and Saturday competition.