New senior citizens and community centre in Raymond Terrace, New South Wales

In a classic case of ‘If you build it, they will come’, Raymond Terrace’s new Senior Citizens and Community Centre has sparked a wave of community activity in the town.

According to Sue Latimer, Secretary of the Raymond Terrace Seniors Citizens and the Community Centre Management Committee, membership has almost doubled to 150 since the Centre opened in March this year.

“We regularly get over 60 people to our fortnightly $3 seniors hot lunch and other activities are picking up too,” Ms Latimer said.

Darts, indoor bowls and bingo have all started up, a men’s support group is being established and the bus trips Ms Latimer organises are booked out well in advance.

Other community groups are also taking advantage of the new facility, which was made possible by $300,000 of Australian Government funding under the Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program.

As Ms Latimer explains, “Health and lifestyle, meditation, art and craft groups, the PCYC and Port Stephens Council are all using the Community Centre. We have had a christening, birthdays, and we are looking at hosting a wedding soon too.”

It seems community infrastructure like this has quite a magnetic appeal. Local residents are keen to use their new facility and as they get more and more involved, so the social fabric of the area gets stronger.

For its part, Port Stephens Council is equally happy with the impact the new Centre is having on the community, and how it supported the local economy through the worst of the global recession.

Council contributed $650,000 to the project and says almost all of the $1 million that flowed through the economy ended up with local contractors, employing local tradespeople.

The new centre has a commercial grade kitchen, hall space, wheelchair access, a new bus stop and shelter, office space and energy and water efficiency measures – a big contrast from the seniors’ old run-down hall on King Street.

Sue Latimer is confident the new level of community engagement and participation at the Centre will continue to grow – it seems finding a bus big enough to fit all the new members will be her next big challenge.

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