APRIL next year will see the first real test for the new criterium track built on Casey Fields when the national human powered vehicles body OzVehicles holds a weekend event at the facility.
My View is that thousands of people will follow the star to the east for this weekend and, besides a wonderful sporting event, we will see an economic boost to the area.
Opportunity exists for the Casey Cardinia Human Powered Vehicle and Cycling Club (CCHPVCC) to show off its achievements and to learn from the national and more experienced body. The weekend will put Clyde, Cranbourne, and Casey on the map and visitors are bound to take more time to see other points of interest in the region such as Tooradin, Phillip Island and Gippsland.
Human powered vehicle competition is a new and rapidly growing competitive sport that has captured the interest of people far and wide, particularly schools.
The sport brings together families and creates camaraderie as good as any.
This activity was made possible because of some forward thinking that goes right back to the decision to buy land that is now Casey Fields, and the initiative to build the criterium track.
During the last week we saw the official opening of the Casey Performing Arts Centre and heard that a master plan was imminent for Sweeney Reserve at Narre Warren.
These facilities, along with the council’s investment in youth and community building is getting people out and doing things along with bringing people into the area who spend money.
Despite this and the accolades I hear from across Australia directed toward the City of Casey, we still have bleating from two or three councillors about accountability and calls to split this municipality.
Let’s do some accounting on the benefits that we have seen emerging in the area.
I was told during the local government restructure process more than 10 years ago that the larger sized City of Casey was to a degree an experiment.
The experiment is providing significant positive results so why pull it apart?