Gibbney Reserve could be latest OSHC site for City of Bayswater

Parents and families in the West Australian City of Bayswater have welcomed a recent Council vote to support a ground release at Gibbney Reserve with the view to opening a ‘long awaited’ outside school hours care (OSHC) service for the community. 

The City of Bayswater council unanimously voted in support of the idea at a meeting on September 24, with the sports ground at Gibbney Reserve just a six-minute walk from Maylands Peninsula Primary School (MPPS). 

Despite being the second largest primary school in WA,  MPPS does not currently have an on-site OSHC centre, with both the school and its parent community being active in lobbying the Council for support. 

For MPPS P&C representative Megan Parker the decision is a welcome one. 

“As working parents, some members of our committee have experienced the overwhelming emotional, mental and financial distress of trying — and failing — to secure suitable OSHC care for our children,” she shared with Perth Now.

“As costs of living continue to rise, working around school bell times has become a privilege that fewer and fewer parents can afford. We are facing impossible choices and it would be unconscionable under the circumstances for council to stand in the way of a long-awaited and much-needed resolution.”

Gibbney Reserve Pavilion is leased to Football West as a “training and education centre” on weeknights and weekends, however the Council’s latest decision allows it to seek expressions of interest from operators to design and construct the new facility behind Gibbney Reserve Pavilion or next to the park’s cricket nets. 

Given the five year lease of the pavilion held by Football West, which commenced in December 2023, the entity will need to be involved in the process as the terms of lease state that “any new development will need to consider existing users”.

To read the Perth Now coverage of this story please see here.