THE FISH Creek community celebrated the official opening of the long-awaited drinking fountain in Central Park last Tuesday with the community also awarded a $10,000 grant from South Gippsland Water.
The fountain features two pieces of artwork from Fish Creek Primary school students Holly and Ruby, who were past winners of the South Gippsland Water poster competition.
Managing Director of SGW Rob Murphy announced the $10,000 Community Resilience Grant for the Fish Creek community.
Rob said SGW would like to make it up to the community after a contractor damaged water mains in July this year, contaminating the town’s water supply with residents required to boil their water for a number of days to ensure it was safe.
“We feel like we have let the community down, we haven’t done what we expect to do, which is provide clean, healthy drinking water,” said Rob.
The funding is to be used to support community members especially those vulnerable and financially or socially disadvantaged and build capacity in the instance of future incidents.
Rob is hopeful that the grant will provide for projects that deliver lasting benefits to the community and he looks forward to seeing interesting and value-adding applications for the funding.
The new water fountain, which was installed in August, is the result of several organisations collaborating, since 2022 when the idea for the project was born.
Marge Arnup, Secretary of the Fish Creek Community Development Group (FCCDG) explained that the group received $4600 from The Tea Cosy Festival Committee to be used for local projects and they brainstormed a water fountain for the rail trail.
They discussed the idea that having fresh clean water available would improve liveability in Fish Creek and would be beneficial for all those using the rail trail and would improve tourism and having water for public events would also be more convenient.
An application to the South Gippsland Shire Council proved successful for the fountain as they have an agreement with the South Gippsland Water Partnership, to provide clean, refillable tap water to assist in providing a cleaner, greener and clearer waterways across the shire and to improve health outcomes for communities.
“It’s the circular economy in action,” said Rob.
While there were a few delays in the installation, it is now available and flowing freely.
The celebration was topped off with a large chocolate cake which the grade five and six students from Fish Creek Primary School heartily enjoyed and which was personally baked by Marge, herself.
