Equipment standards review sees cost of Jurien Bay Bowling Club lighting project reach $57k

Planned upgrades to Jurien Bay Bowling Club’s lighting infrastructure will cost about $20,000 more than was initially budgeted due to changes being made to official competition guidelines after project funding was secured.

The Shire of Dandaragan in July 2021 agreed to fund one-third of the almost $35,200 project, which involved the installation of new lighting equipment to achieve a minimum 100lux across the bowling greens. The existing lighting infrastructure is not suitable for competition bowls and restricts game play to daylight hours.

One-third of the project would be funded by the State Government’s Community Sporting and Recreation Facilities Fund, with the remaining costs to be covered by the club.

But Bowls Australia has since increased its recommended minimum lighting requirements for competition-level bowls to 150lux.

To comply with the new lighting standards, two central poles at the Jurien Bay club would need to be replaced to sustain the weight of additional lighting heads. This would bring the cost of the project up to $57,000.

The club would have to wait until the next round of the CSRFF grant program to apply for more State funding, but this could be avoided if the club and council increased their contributions to $22,514.50 each.

Shire economic development manager Tony O’Gorman said the higher standard of lighting would equip Jurien Bay to host major bowling events, but he recognised it was difficult to predict if these events would attract interest from local and State-wide athletes.

The council found the project to be worth investing in and agreed to increase its contribution by $10,545.