Surf Coast Shire Council has approved plans for the Surf Coast Cultural Centre, which will integrate four community facilities into the one building.

The centre will house the Surf Coast Art Space, Torquay Visitor Information Centre, Australian National Surfing Museum and Torquay Library under one roof. The initial designs have been created by William Ross Architects, with the local council to appoint an architect for the detailed design stage at a later date.

To be delivered in two stages, the first stage of development will expand the Australian National Surfing Museum, Torquay Library and Visitor Information Centre, with the second seeing a full redevelopment of the arts space, transforming it to feature a 250-seat theatre, gallery and artist-in-residence studio. The entire design will reference the local Wadawurrung People’s cultural heritage.

Surf Coast Mayor, Libby Stapleton, says community consultation is vital for the next stages of the design process.

“Now we ask for our community’s help in spreading the word about this fantastic project worthy of strong support from state and federal governments. We would also welcome interest from the philanthropic sector,” she says.

“Many members of the arts community, surf industry and users of the current buildings shared with us what they think are the needs for this facility and this has very much informed the concept design we have now. We will continue to seek their advice as we progress to detailed stages of planning and design.

“We are particularly excited by the prospect of creating a purpose-built space enabling us to better display the 12,000 items from our Australian National Surfing Museum. Our collection is recognised as being of national and international significance and illustrates such a vivid and important part of our story on the Surf Coast.”

Council’s pending grant applications are for $10 million through the Victorian Government’s Regional Tourism Investment Fund, and $8.06 million through the Australian Government’s Building Better Regions Fund. It is looking for further funds through philanthropic contributions and state and federal grants.

Surf Coast Shire Council hopes to deliver the first stage of the project in 2024, with the second slated for completion in 2030.

Image: Surf Coast Shire Council

Jarrod Reedie

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