Being a proactive organisation focused on assisting those in the community who may not enjoy the privileges and good fortune of others, since 2017 the Rotary Club of Mobilong has been working to develop a spacious “Rotary Park” precinct that vulnerable people could visit in safety and be surrounded by natural beauty in a non-threatening environment.
An environmentally degraded area of land, “Jubilee Park”fronting Swanport Road Murray Bridge has been selected for the project, as it services approximately 2,750 socially disadvantaged elements of the Murray Bridge community, including low-income renters of public housing and disenfranchised members of the local Aboriginal community.
The area not only holds genuine potential to provide open-space facilities and a pleasant environment for a segment of the local population that suffers significant social and financial disadvantage, it is also designed to be a shared common space for the more advantaged members of the local community.
In enhancing opportunity for the various advantaged and disadvantaged segments of the community to jointly share a public space, there is potential to partially bridge the existing social gap by acting as a conduit to reducing the social barriers between tenants of public housing (many who suffer significant social and financial disadvantage) and the neighbouring residents of privately owned property.
Working in partnership with the Rural City of Murray Bridge,part of the commitment by Mobilong Rotary involves significant financial contribution to enable the construction of a sheltered seating area, installation of park furniture and strategic environmental remediation through the establishment of threatened native plant species. The seats and shelter have been installed, the plantings have been suspended pending the lifting of the Covid-19 restrictions.
stage 2. As a developing initiative, the involvement of local school communities and interested residents in a public art installation is being encouraged.
