Councillor Kristin Butler.
“You don’t have to be anyone special… I certainly wasn’t,” says Yass Valley Deputy Mayor, Kristin Butler, who is now watching Murrumbateman’s new All Ability Playground start construction following six years of advocacy.
“It’s up to community members sometimes to get stuff done, and not just solely on the shoulders of Council to deliver projects.”
When Kristin first contacted Council about a new playground, she was an “average community member going back and forth with Council and not getting anywhere”.
After hitting a wall following several meetings with the then-CEO and directors, she turned her attention to then-Federal Member for the Yass Valley, Kristy McBain.
“I sent her an email, desperately seeking help [because] I didn’t know where else to go,” says Kristin.
“She called me almost immediately and said that she felt my pain and she came out.
“I hosted a playground protest on the actual site where it is now being built and rallied together the community members. She attended and we stood there in front of the insufficient playground equipment.”
At the time of Kristin’s protest in 2021, the existing playground was almost 20 years old.
A short while later, Kristy McBain showed up at a Little Athletics event (of which Kristin was the former president) and made an election promise of a $750,000 grant which would be non-site specific if she were re-elected.
“Subsequently, she was elected, and she kept that promise and delivered $750,000 to Council,” says Kristin.
“Suddenly there was a lot of opportunities to build a playground.”
Murrumbateman’s numbers continue to swell as the community gets bigger each year, and Deputy Mayor Butler says having a playground for the town is a basic human right.
“It’s a point of connection for the community… It’s just fundamental,” she says.
“To have that lacking and to have no plan for it was an absolute oversight of Council at that point in time.”
Although she says she is incredibly proud as Deputy Mayor of the Yass Valley to see construction start, she says her current position did nothing in her advocacy.
“I started this endeavour before I was a Councillor,” she says.
“In fact, my passion to un for Council at the time was because I was so frustrated at the Council at the time.”
Deciding to become a strong voice to represent the entire Yass Valley, she says Murrumbateman always holds a soft spot in her heart.
Following the initial funding from Kristy McBain’s grant, Yass Valley Council did contribute $200,000 on top of another $116,000 grant that was reallocated to the program.
For now, the park’s completion date is already marked in several calendars ahead of the spring weather.
“It just goes to show that sometimes you just need to keep pushing really hard as a community member,” says Kristin.
“You don’t have to be on Council to be able to get projects like this to come to life.
“If you are passionate about something and you have tenacity and grit about you, which can anybody can muster, you can get these projects for your community.”
Located on Hercules Street, construction for the new playground is expected to be completed in October this year.
Elizabeth Kovacs
The Murrumbateman Playground Project Committee in 2023.
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