Photo: (Front) Ethan Amerasingher, Willow Butler, Isabella Blayden. (Back) Makayla Timm, Kristy McBain, Bridget Tillyard, Jack Hiller and William Lawson.

Federal Member for Eden Monaro, Kristy McBain, has secured $750,000 for a new park at Murrumbateman if the Labor Party wins the next Federal Election.

Mrs McBain said she attended an event in Murrumbateman last June and spoke to several parents and community members who spoke about the need for a bigger play space in the area.

“[Murrumbateman is] a place where every day you are seeing hundreds and hundreds of cars come past a place where people naturally want to stop,” Mrs McBain said.

Firstly, Labor will need to be elected, then the community will be able to work with Yass Valley Council to determine the best location for the playground.

“Then we get in a playground, and we make sure that it is there for generations to come,” she said. “It will be an all-accessible playground so that people of all abilities can use the equipment there.”

Mrs McBain thanked Cr Kristin Butler for her work on improving Murrumbateman’s recreational facilities, all the people who signed a petition to get better recreational facilities in the area, and the Yass Valley Council for their work on the project as well.

“Recreation was one of the key things that I wanted to really get on top of in this community,” Cr Butler said after focusing on it throughout her campaign during last year’s election. “I think [a park in Murrumbateman] will just be that lovely central meeting point,” she said. “You can clearly see that there’s a lot of need for people who want to come together as a community.”

Cr Butler created the Murrumbateman Little Athletics Club in 2019, which has since grown to nearly 150 members, in order to create another space in the community for both local kids and parents to meet in addition to providing a recreational activity.

“I think that a playground or a Park Reserve with barbecues and things to do is just an area where the community can meet.”

Murrumbateman currently only has a set of two swings across the road from the petrol station and Kristin acknowledged that the area also has tennis, equestrian, scouts, and karate but emphasised the lack of many free recreational spaces.

Kristy McBain and Yass Valley Councillor Kristin Butler

“Having central meeting points where people can come together for free is an integral part of a community.”

“It’s at the heart of a community that you have these areas and spaces, and we don’t have that here,” Cr Butler said. “We just don’t have it.”

By Brianna O’Rourke