Award for New White Park Arena

SINCE opening, the new White Park arena has received rave reviews from the community and on Thursday night the Upper Hunter Shire Council received the award for ‘Best Regional/ Rural Industry Contribution in NSW or the ACT from Parks and Leisure Australia.

Cr Lee Watts, Chair of the White Park Committee, said it was wonderful to see the arena being used by the community and an award was the icing on the cake.

Unvieling the plaque at the White Park arena: L-R: Michael Johnsen MP, Barnaby Joyce MP, Mayor Wayne Bedggood, Dr Judy White OAM, UHSC general manager Steve McDonald and Cr Lee Watts.

“The award is great recognition for all of the hard work people have put into making the arena a reality and to win from throughout New South Wales and the ACT is a great feather in our cap,” said Cr Watts.

“But the real recognition comes from our community, both the people who go to watch an event and the groups who chose to have their event at the arena and so far the feedback has been great and people are using it, which means we’ve done something right,” she said.

“There is still so much planned for the arena, but it is off to a great start and will be something we can all be proud of and enjoy for decades to come,” Cr Lee Watts said.

Nick Havyatt, director of infrastructure services for UHSC said they hoped the arena would attract more events and visitors to the region and they look forward to stage two of the development.

Following grant funding of $124,360 from the federal government for tourism and $139,280 from the NSW government seating will soon be at the arena.

New stables, horse boxes, upgraded power supply, roadways, camping amenities, bar, canteen, landscaping and a crossing over Fig Tree Gully are all planned for further stages of the development.

Stage one included the undercover arena with seating capacity of almost 3,000 people, toilets, water and sewerage, which was largely funded through the NSW government Restart NSW Hunter Infrastructure and Investment Funding through a $1.47 million contribution and money from the UHSC, state and federal governments, the Stronger Country Communities and Tourism Demand Driver Infrastructure Program from the NSW Department of Industry.