Football in Toowoomba has received a major boost in this year's Palaszczuk Government Budget, by announcing it will build new female change rooms at Nell E. Robinson Park.
Minister for Sport Mick de Brenni said that to address gender inequality in sport the Palaszczuk Government was ensuring clubs had the proper facilities to encourage more women and girls to get involved.
"We want to break down the barriers that stop Queenslanders from being active, and having female change rooms is a very important step in the right direction," said Mr de Brenni.
"Which is why we're funding the new amenities block with four change rooms, toilets and a referee's room for the West Wanderers.
"These facilities will be game changing for the football club, and the dozens of teams which play on their fields every weekend."
West Wanderers Secretary Doug Spinks said the club has 562 registered players and coaches – 91 of them women and girls.
"We have a lot of our ladies and junior girls getting changed on the pitch which is just not acceptable," said Mr Spinks.
"We have two senior female teams and 44 mixed junior teams and we are just barely getting by with these old change rooms, so this will be a huge fillip for what we are trying to do.
"When you count all the visiting teams we have here every week, we have up to 2,500 people on site every Saturday and a huge number of them are women and girls.
"We really need the extra space, so four extra change rooms will give us the ability to offer them a safe place to get changed in comfort."
Mr de Brenni said that the recent Palaszczuk Government Budget was delivering jobs for regional Queensland and Toowoomba was no exception to that.
"We're building new female facilities for local clubs, and ensuring local tradies are building them.
"This project, totalling over half a million dollars, will providing jobs for the local region.
"Since 2018 the Palaszczuk Government's Female Facilities Fund has committed funding for 45 projects – one has opened, eight have finished construction and 11 more have started construction.
"These projects have generated almost 50 full-time equivalent jobs for Queenslanders."
Mr de Brenni said the council-owed land would also be used by schools for touch football, other recreational programs and community fitness groups.
