Last week’s Aquatics and Recreation Victoria Industry Awards Gala was a wonderful celebration of the talent, programs, and achievements driving our sector forward — and a fitting tribute to 50 years of ARV.

We extend our congratulations to all award recipients, and in particular to our Managing Director, Kate Maddock, on being honoured with the 2026 Outstanding Contribution Award. A well-deserved recognition of Kate’s leadership and commitment to the industry.

Thank you to the ARV team for a truly memorable evening.

Otium is excited to be partnering with Selwyn District Council to develop their Community Facilities Network Strategy (CFNS) — a forward-looking framework to guide how community facilities are planned, owned, operated and invested in across the district.

We recently kicked off the project with a series of staff workshops, generating valuable insights into current provision, key challenges and future opportunities for the Selwyn community.

The strategy will bring together four specialised network plans:

• Aquatics Facilities
• Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums
• Indoor Courts
• Community Halls and Centres.

Together, these will form an integrated strategic framework — ensuring community facilities across Selwyn are well-connected, sustainable and built to serve the community long into the future.

We’re looking forward to working closely with Selwyn District Council to help make that vision a reality!

We’re midway through the Nunweek Park Pavilion Feasibility Study for the Canterbury Hockey Association — a project exploring future pavilion options to support participation, performance, and long-term sustainability at the regional level.

A key focus so far has been targeted engagement with local hockey clubs and wider sector stakeholders. These conversations have surfaced how existing facilities are functioning, the pressures they’re under, and what a future pavilion genuinely needs to deliver. That insight is now directly shaping the project’s direction and ensuring the feasibility work stays grounded in real-world use and operational realities.

The next phase translates this feedback into a clear functional brief, followed by concept design development and high-level cost planning. These elements will be tested with the project steering group to explore viable options, staging, and funding pathways — before being brought together into a robust feasibility assessment to support future decision-making.

Projects like this highlight the importance of combining meaningful stakeholder engagement with practical analysis to shape facility outcomes that are both aspirational and deliverable.