A long-held Mallacoota vision moves closer to reality
Gippsland Community Foundation offers $230,000 towards an Aqua Therapy Facility that could help generations of Mallacoota residents live well.
For decades, the Mallacoota community has shared a vision for local access to aqua therapy. Now, that long-held aspiration is part of a much bigger plan underway for the community-owned Wellbeing and Recreation Centre, bringing health, wellbeing and rehabilitation together in one accessible location.
Gippsland Community Foundation has made a conditional offer of $230,000 to Mallacoota’s Community Health, Infrastructure Resilience Fund Inc. (CHIRF) towards the Centre’s proposed Aqua Therapy Facility, helping address a significant funding gap in the project.
The offer, made from Black Summer Community Bushfire Disaster Relief Funds, is subject to the satisfactory completion of agreed provisions, with the grant to be confirmed once the provisions have been met.
The proposed Centre will be built on community-owned land alongside the Mallacoota Medical Centre, creating a central hub for health and wellbeing in the district.
At its heart is an opportunity to provide something the community has wanted for generations: an accessible space where people can build strength, maintain mobility, recover from injury and participate in activities that support their health, wellbeing and quality of life.
CHIRF, working alongside Mallacoota Inlet Aged Care and the wider community, has already raised more than $2 million towards the Centre. This substantial community effort has provided a major part of the capital required to bring the project closer to reality, although further funding is still needed.
Up to now, the Aqua Therapy portion of the proposed facility has sat outside the project's current funding agreements, leaving a gap in delivery that could make a meaningful difference to the lives of local residents.
Gippsland Community Foundation’s conditional offer reflects the importance of community-led initiatives that respond to local priorities, and the determination of a regional community to invest in its own future. By supporting projects shaped by the people who will use them, GCF’s local giving principles help communities pursue solutions that have lasting value.
Gippsland Community Foundation’s congratulates CHIRF, Mallacoota Inlet Aged Care, and the wider community in being one step closer to delivering a facility that combines practical health and wellbeing benefits.
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