VOLUNTEERS spent Tuesday evening busily mowing the Stanthorpe Sports Association’s McGlew Street ovals ahead of a major junior rugby league carnival this weekend.
The ovals had been the source of some controversy after the Southern Downs Regional Council announced it would be reducing its mowing to the minimum for parks and gardens in the region.
The Stanthorpe Sports Association (SSA) has leased the ovals from the council for decades and the former Stanthorpe Shire regularly did the mowing.
However, since amalgamation sports field maintenance has been a major issue across the region with clubs in Warwick doing all their own mowing.
Councillors last week suggested the SSA might have to source volunteer labour to mow the ovals if and when necessary and that’s exactly what happened on Tuesday night when more than 20 volunteers showed up.
SSA president Colin Britton told the Free Times on Wednesday that there were numerous ride-on mowers and whipper snippers in action to bring the fields up to standard for this weekend’s junior rugby league Mustangs Under 12 Challenge.
“We were pretty overwhelmed by the support from the community,” Mr Britton said.
“We had people there who didn’t even have a connection to sport.
“Obviously the rugby league community are pretty happy with the result. This weekend is a major carnival.”
Mr Britton said the grass wasn’t long enough this week to meet the Southern Downs Regional Council’s requirements.
The SSA had initially planned to mow the fields on Wednesday but brought the working bee forward to Tuesday because rain was forecast for the rest of this week.
