THE three-decade old Centenary Plains BMX Club at Browns Plains has had a $1.1 million makeover transforming it from the club that could into one set to become the envy of BMX clubs around Australia.
Club and committee members past and present gathered today, October 9, 2018, to mark a 33 year journey that produced elite athletes including a former world champion, Glenn Codega, and contemporary home dirt hero Josh Boyton, currently competing in the UCI world series. Some rode at the club as kids and now work on the comittee while their own kids ride the track.
Logan City Council contributed $689,000 to build a new club house complete with contemporary kitchen, pump track and road, with $335,000 contributed by the Queensland government and the remainder raised by the club in what “amounted to a lot of sausages and drinks sold”. A new starting gate is still to come.
BMX Australia’s Neil Cameron flew in from Sydney to join guests from BMX Queensland and Federal, state and local politicians. He said the modern clubhouse and track would make Centenary Plains the envy of clubs Australia-wide.
“If there something I take away from today, it’s that someone had a vision and others came together to make it happen,” he said.
Logan acting mayor Cr Cherie Dalley recalled how she took her turn at canteen duties while her son, when he was growing up, rode at the track.
“The club is 33 years old and for about 30 of those years it operated out of two converted containers,” she said.
“One of those was the kitchen and canteen. It would get so hot you’d feel like you were cooking too while the ladies cooked chips and pies and hamburgers.”
Cr Dalley said construction of the new club house had been a journey of its own with asbestos, tyres and tree roots pulled from the site to add to the complications.
“Look at it now … it’s stunning,” she said.
Logan MP Linus Power advocated for the club for a decade before it became part of the electorate of Woodridge when boundaries changed around the time of the last election.
“I like to think about a kid pedalling down Yancey Street and how this kid gets here and is transformed from a kid on the street into someone with a competitive edge, someone who has learned all the skills and disciplines that can be taught by this club … and I hope that kid peddling down Yancey Street will one day become an Olympian,” he said.
Woodridge MP Cameron Dick said he was proud to be associated with a place where kids and their parents could come together.
Rankin MP Dr Jim Chalmers and Cr Steve Swenson almost stole the show when they agreed to a race a couple of bikes around the track.
Dr Chalmers was first across the finish line though, to be fair, he got a head start.
“That’s go,” he called over his shoulder as he made a break for it. “Come on Steve.”
