Nhill and District Sporting Club representatives learned on Thursday – on the eve of the Nhill Tigers’ first Wimmera league home game against Warrack Eagles – that the 1965 -built Davis Park Pavilion would close to spectators for safety reasons. 

Hindmarsh Shire Council officials said the structure was unsafe but would not elaborate on the issue. 

The sporting club’s president Brett Wheaton said the pavilion was an important element of the club’s facilities.

The ground hosts four different sports – football, netball, hockey and cricket. 

Mr Wheaton said a council engineer’s report from 2016 had highlighted safety issues.  

“Yes, there were some safety concerns at that time – but they did some works on it to make it safe to use. In that first initial report, it had a one- to three-year possible lifespan and would be evaluated year-by-year,” Mr Wheaton said. 

“In 2017 it was fine and we had been in contact with the council many times through Christmas to make sure it was okay to use for the 2018 season. I asked them to not come to me five minutes before the game and say we couldn’t use it.” 

Mr Wheaton said the hockey club used the pavilion on Anzac Day and by other people until Thursday night. 

He said the sporting club was not allowed to maintain or fix the pavilion as part of an agreement with the council.

“The biggest problem is a lack of communication between council, the sporting club and the councillors,” Mr Wheaton said. 

“The councillors didn’t even know and they were quite upset to find out it was closed a couple days before the game. 

“(The club) is very happy to be involved it the communications about what is going to happen to the pavilion and want to work with council to get the best result.” 

Hindmarsh Shire Council’s infrastructure director Shane Power said the pavilion was closed out of duty of care to the community. 

“We had independent structural engineers have a look at the pavilion earlier this year and there were some components of it which, I felt, were unusable,” he said. 

“It was clear it couldn’t accommodate the design load and we were not sure what load it could accommodate – whether that be one person or 100 people – so in the interest of public safety, we closed it.” 

There has been no timeline on how long it would take to complete the new engineer’s report, but Mr Power said he was pushing to have it finished by Friday. 

“We are hoping it is sooner rather than later. We know the pavilion has a lot of community sentiment,” he said.

Mr Power said the council hoped to have more information regarding the pavilion to share with the community this week. 

Member for Lowan Emma Kealy has launched a petition in support of saving the pavilion.

Ms Kealy said she was calling on the state government to provide money to Nhill and District Sporting Club to repair the pavilion. 

President Brett Wheaton said the biggest frustration was the sudden nature of the closure.

He said 350 visitors went through the gate on Saturday, plus club members. 

“There was no way we could bring in makeshift grandstands. We just had to tell people you can’t use it,” he said. 

Ms Kealy said petition forms were available at several Nhill businesses and her electoral office at 114 Firebrace Street, Horsham.