The former Kyabram Town Council chief executive officer has achieved a lot since he arrived in the community in the 1980s.
He has contributed significantly to the town’s development as a local government professional and since retiring from that role has fought on several different fronts for the rights of his fellow townspeople.
No better example is the role he has played in recouping funds for account holders of the failed Banksia Financial Group.
That ongoing battle was far from his mind on Saturday when he sat back as a proud Kyabram Parkland Golf Club member (and, in this instance, project manager) and watched Golf Australia chief executive officer James Sutherland officially open the new facility.
Mr McKenzie probably won’t even bother to acknowledge the project as an individual accolade, but there were enough people singing his praises at the opening to suggest it would not have happened without him.
He acknowledged people from almost every quarter of the town in explaining just how a pie in the sky project went from a grant application in 2020 to a finished product even beyond his own wild imagination on Saturday, November 18.
THE TIMELINE
February 2020: inspired by an alfresco sports bar facility at RACV Healesville Country Club and Resort’s golf course, Kyabram Parkland Golf Club identifies the opportunity to apply for a Federal Government grant to construct a COVID-friendly facility.
February 8, 2021: the Fred Roberts-led committee resolves to apply for a grant of $200,000 on a dollar-for-dollar basis in order to deliver a $400,000 project. Long-time Kyabram funeral celebrant, the late Clive Coventry, provided a $100,000 loan to the club to allow the application to continue.
March 5, 2021: the submission is completed 25 days later as applications close on the “spade-ready” projects under the Building Better Regions Fund.
October 29, 2021: club receives advice from then-Federal Member for Nicholls Damien Drum that the application was successful.
January 31, 2022: club member and architect Dale Denham, of Denham Designs, offers his services for free to the club to prepare the plans and organise the planning and permit applications.
May 2, 2022: after then-club president Greg Ryan had set up a fundraising committee to find $150,000 due to a cost blowout in the project, the building permit was issued on the back of $50,000 from Kyabram Club and Kyabram’s Bendigo Bank, along with major donations of $20,000 from Gary Evans of Southwest Developments, $10,000 from Balmain Investments’ Michael Holm and an anonymous donation of $10,000.
November 18, 2023: what started as a $400,000 upgrade project in February 2020 is opened by Golf Australia chief executive officer James Sutherland with an estimated $750,000 price tag. Of that, about $200,000 in voluntary contributions had come from various community members and businesses.
“The extensive community use of this building since it was finished in June certainly confirms that a facility such as this was needed in the community,” Mr McKenzie said.
“I reckon the couple celebrating their wedding at the other end of the building later today will agree. This is our first wedding and there are more in the pipeleine.”
A meeting with the architect who designed the inspiration for the Kyabram Parkland upgrade, a development at a Healesville golf course, was the inspiration to further pursue the project in January 2021.
“I met with Shepparton builder Frank Moretto not long after and he was exceptional in his advice and assistance,” Mr McKenzie said.
“Then Dale Denham came on board and there is no doubt in my mind that things would not have gone so well had Dale not been involved.
“He secured David Green, a building surveyor and club member, and myself to be part of the project team.
“Len Price, a consulting engineer and building consultant in Shepparton, then offered his services at no cost.”
In-kind contributions by building professionals and business associates of the club are a recurring theme of the project. In fact, Mr McKenzie estimated that $200,000 of the $750,000 price tag that came with the upgrade was made up of voluntary contributions.
GV Carports and Patios was the company responsible for the build, its largest ever undertaking, with the backing of Fabio Pigatto (Pigatto Constructions), Brady Electrical’s Bill Brady, Stephen and Brad Warde, Damien Watson (Kyabram Steel and Fabrication), earthworks contractor Paul Colman, painter Jason Roberts and several other Kyabram companies.
“Paul Price and his amazing band of volunteers demolished a verandah, removed trees and demolished the interior of the building. We estimated that work would have cost us in the vicinity of $100,000,” Mr McKenzie said.
“It is only because of the generosity of all the people involved in the build and fundraising that this tremendous community asset is able to be opened today.”
