BendigoWeekly www.bendigoweekly.com
ISSUE 1136 FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2019
Continue the Legacy LEGACY WEEK starts on Sunday, and it’s your chance to help others. Every dollar raised in Bendigo goes to Bendigo war widows. You can buy badges at the front of the Bendigo Marketplace and at other points around the city. Legacy Week began in 1942, and is the annual national appeal for the families of incapacitated and deceased veterans.
CASHED IN Bob Sharpe and Steven Lee. Photo: ANDREW PERRYMAN
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Funding shortfall blamed as Aspire project stalls
By NICHOLAS NAKOS
THE Aspire Cultural and Charitable Foundation’s ambitious Aspire precinct won’t progress as planned. The project was slated to begin earlier this year, with an unsuccessful federal government funding application said to be the latest reason for the halt. After receiving a $5 million guarantee from the Victorian Labor Party just weeks before the 2014 state election, Aspire said it was now declining the state government’s contribution. The project’s recent failure is blamed on dwindling available re-
sources and repeated unsuccessful attempts to obtain federal government grants. In a media release, the Aspire Foundation said its rethink “allows consideration of the future possibilities for the site.” According to Aspire’s chairman Gordon McKern that rethink involves spending $2.5 million on construction of a parish hall, toilets and access to the Sacred Heart Cathedral, with the money available to spend now. “If we have something open to the public, it could attract more donations,” Mr McKern said. The revised plans have been ticked off by the foundation’s
board, with construction reportedly slated to commence “within the first six months of 2020,” Mr McKern said. The original $15M project has been consistently delayed since the foundation’s launch in February 2013. Plans for an education centre, business hub, cafe, retail outlets and interpretive centre, among others, were floated as part of the precinct. “The Foundation’s Board has determined that it is not possible at this time to arrive at an outcome that would satisfy all stakeholder requirements within the overall business case,” Aspire’s
media release said. In its most recently published special purpose financial report for the financial year ending June 30, 2018, the foundation received just $1006 in donations in 201718, compared to $524,762 in 2016-17. Aspire Foundation chairman Gordon McKern couldn’t reveal an exact figure for donations in the 2018-19 recent financial year. “The donations were minimal,” Mr McKern said, agreeing that donations were less than the $1006 received in 2017-18.
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