Member for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall announced the funding during a meeting with Showground Trust members at the Inverell showground yesterday morning. He said the Showground Trust had quite a long wish list and he was delighted to have been able to secure enough funding to get all of the critical projects completed.

Showground Trust chairman Dave Adams said the funds would provide a huge and timely boost to the facilities.

“When applying for the grant we thought we may as well put down everything we needed, thinking we’d only get a little of what we asked for – so to receive funding for the whole lot is very exciting,” Mr Adams said.

“As a community we are fortunate to be able to stage so many events at the showground, so it’s important to continue maintaining our facilities and in this case, make sure our campdraft arena is safe and our pavilion receives the work it needs.”

Vice-president of the Inverell Show Society Jodie Burtenshaw said the funding would fix a number of ‘to do’ items.

“We’re going to put a new cool-room in the kitchen. We have a cool-room in a bar that does not work and has not worked for a few years because we’ve had no funds to repair it and the ladies in the kitchen require a new stove,” Mr Burtenshaw said.

“And as of January 1, the microphone (PA) system is outdated and will not be able to operate on that frequency.

Not only will the public address system for the grounds be replaced there will also be work done on the basketball stadium.

President of the Inverell Basketball Association Tane Richards said safety and security issues were the main things that need to be revamped.

“Just improving an old stadium,” Mr Richards said.

“The doors are quite possibly the original doors and they’re showing signs of age. People have been jumping up and down on the floor for the last 46 years, so it’s due for a bit of a touch-up, too.”

Mr Marshall said what was really good about the funding was the fact that the trust received all the funding it applied for.

“Often with these things you submit a wish list ... and sometimes you don’t always get everything you want, but in this case we did,” Mr Marshall said.