Mahoney’s Reserve Master Plan
The City of Whitehorse is currently undertaking the development of a Master Plan for Mahoney’s Reserve in Forest Hill. The reserve is 9.8 hectares of open space that caters for a range of sporting and recreational activities such as soccer, cricket, badminton, table tennis, walking, dog off-lead area and play.
In January 2024, the Council completed the first round of community consultation on its proposed Master Plan for Mahoney’s Reserve. A major focus of these consultations was an option to build one combined pavilion on the reserve to meet the needs of sporting groups and scouts. Based on the feedback received about the pavilion redevelopment, this project was put on hold while Council develops a Master Plan for the entire reserve.
Council has foreshadowed proposed consultations for the Master Plan for Mahoney’s Reserve. The time and details are yet to be confirmed.
Council has said these consultations will consider all facilities within the park including the three buildings, play space, sports fields, path network, carpark and landscape and all other facilities in a holistic manner. Local sports clubs (including table tennis and badminton clubs) will remain using the northern pavilion until a decision is made on the pavilion design, which will occur once the Master Plan is completed.
There is deep concern amongst table tennis players that their venue, Mahoney’s Hall, is under threat of demolition. Whitehorse Council has encouraged the group to look elsewhere for a new playing venue. This concern is expressed in the following article by Bruce Haines, Leader, WAC Afternoon Table Tennis Activity.
20/7/2025
Sport for all at Mahoney’s Hall
Bruce Haines
If you haven’t played table tennis, think what you are missing out on. Table tennis may be your ticket to a longer, healthier and happier life, as has been proven by the Mayo Clinic.
At our Indoor Sports Hall at Mahoney’s Reserve, you will meet enthusiastic 80-year-old players of this sport, along with 300 others, cheerfully engaging with bat and ball and each other. The wonderful thing about table tennis is that while it requires good co-ordination of eyes and hand, it does not have to be strenuous, so it suits all ages. And, it provides an excellent avenue for multi-cultural social interaction, which is good for us all, but especially benefits senior members in our community. As a tonic for physical and mental health, what’s not to like?
But table tennis is the poor cousin to outdoor sports in the Whitehorse community. Residents of the City of Whitehorse are blessed with so many opportunities to play outdoor sport. The Whitehorse Council boasts of at least 54 Council maintained outdoor sports fields providing magnificent opportunities to stay fit and athletic. If you travel around Whitehorse, you will have also noticed that in recent times these outdoor sports fields have been provided with new state-of-the-art artificial lighting for playing at night, as well as new, expensive, electronic scoreboards. Considerable financial resources are poured into these venues by Council.
Council’s view of sport though is very limited. In the Council’s own Sporting Facilities Guide, only six sports are addressed: AFL, soccer, cricket, cross-country, baseball and rugby. There is no mention of racquet sports, such as badminton or table tennis. By comparison with the enormous outlay Council provides to its 54 outdoor sports venues, Whitehorse Council currently manages just three indoor sports venues that cater for badminton and table tennis clubs. These are at Mahoney’s Reserve, Eley Park and at Sportlink. Soon, there will only be two.
In 2021, Whitehorse Council commenced planning for a new sports pavilion at Mahoneys Reserve, to replace four buildings currently existing there – the Scouts Hall, the Soccer Pavilion, the Northern Cricket Pavilion and Mahoneys Hall – with a single building they suggested would meet the needs of all tenants. With minimal consultation, a draft masterplan was proposed in 2022, that clearly didn’t satisfy the Scouts or the indoor sports users of Mahoneys Hall. As a consequence, Council officers decided that the Scouts Hall and the Soccer Pavilion could remain in place. The initial plan was shelved and greater effort was made to engage with users of Mahoneys Hall.
Local residents state that Mahoneys Hall was constructed in 1968 and since that time it has been the home venue for St Johns Table Tennis Club. An honour board mounted at the end of the hall, lists St Johns Club officials and club champions for each year since. And, many other clubs have also made Mahoneys Hall their home venue for badminton and table tennis. A recent tally of users made it clear to Council that there are over 350 people who play indoor sports at Mahoneys Hall regularly each week, coming from approximately a dozen different clubs and organised social activities, from 9 in the morning until 10 pm, on 7 days each week. Mahoneys Hall has been purpose built for badminton and table tennis; it has excellent lighting, a 5-metre high ceiling, a parquetry floor and air-conditioning, so that indoor sports can be played there all year round at any time of the day or night.
The Whitehorse Activities Club is a big user of Mahoneys Hall and many of our members are over 70, some are more than 80 years old – yet still come regularly for a game and to enjoy socialising with younger players.
However, the indoor sports of badminton and table tennis appear to matter little to Whitehorse Council officers. In spite of all our lobbying over the past three years, Council officers seem hell-bent on demolishing Mahoneys Hall in order to replace it with their proposed majestic new $17million Cricket pavilion. Although Mahoneys Reserve has been a community hub for both indoor and outdoor sports for nearly 60 years, the indoor sports participants will be booted out. This was made clear to us again at our most recent meeting with Council representatives on Friday 4th July. Sadly, it appears that soon there might be no sport at all at Mahoneys Hall. If readers of the Eastsider News can agree that we should support seniors playing indoor sports, could you contact your Whitehorse Councillor and let them know? We would appreciate that.
Bruce Haines is Leader of the Whitehorse Activity Club (WAC) Afternoon Table Tennis Activity
20/7/2025