Community Hubs play a significant role in providing various activities and programs that reflect the needs of their local communities. This is why it is important we hear from you, so that the Geelong West community can help shape what a redeveloped Hub can provide for the community.

Examples of what happens at Community Hubs includes arts and craft, dance and karate, yoga and meditation, meetings and other corporate events, cooking classes, self-learning and social groups. We need to ensure the building is designed to be flexible and accommodating to these activities.

• Meet people and build community friendships
• Learn new skills through classes, workshops and activities
• Volunteer or take part in community projects

A concept plan is the first phase of designing for a facility. It generally shows functional components of the building and site and how they work together.

Once feedback has been collated, the concept plan will be updated, and design can then progress at a more detailed level.

The draft concept plan:

• Reconfigures the internal space to deliver a hallway, making it easier for multiple programs to operate at once.
• Repurposes the stage into a multipurpose room and storeroom.
• Reconfigures the rear entry, office, meeting room and kitchen to make the rear entry more inviting and create more useable spaces.
• Provides a new deck and door openings to the eastern side of the building, to improve connections to West Park.
• Reconfigures carparking at the rear of the building to provide complaint disabled parking.
• Creates more user-friendly bathroom spaces.
• Embed Wadawurrung cultural elements.

The Geelong West Neighbourhood House received a Community Infrastructure Grant from the City of Greater Geelong to undertake concept planning for the Community Hub. The City of Greater Geelong is project managing the delivery of the concept plan, working closely with the Geelong West Neighbourhood House to build community support and ownership in shaping the future of the hub. This has included reviewing design options and providing feedback.

At this time, there is no funding secured to deliver the redevelopment shown in the draft concept plan. As such, there is no timeline for delivery of the development of the Hub. Council and the Geelong West Neighbourhood House will endeavour to explore all funding opportunities that are available. The redevelopment is shown in four stages in the concept plan, so that it can be delivered in smaller more affordable stages.

Following community engagement, we will consolidate the feedback and make it available on the Have Your Say Page. The feedback will be used to inform the final concept plan, and detailed design process.

• Flexible, Multi-Use Spaces: Enable three bookable spaces to operate concurrently, with improved office and multi-purpose room locations.
• Accessibility & Safety: Upgrade toilets (gender-neutral, accessible, baby change), improve internal circulation, and enhance pedestrian pathways to eliminate safety concerns.
• Integration with Park: Add a deck and visual connection to the adjacent park, supporting both scheduled programming and informal community interaction.
• Cultural & Sustainability Considerations: Embed Wadawurrung cultural elements, investigate solar panels, electrify appliances, and use energy-efficient systems.
• Community Ownership: Build support and ownership by involving stakeholders in shaping the future of the hub.

The personal information and feedback (collectively the Data) requested on this page is being collected by City of Greater Geelong (City) for the purpose of the Geelong West Community Hub Draft Concept Plan and any other directly related purpose of the project.

A de-identified engagement summary report may be published on our website.

If your personal information is not collected, the Project may not be able to be adequately conducted, and the City may not be able to contact you for further questions or to find solutions.

In order to collect and conduct in depth and detailed analysis of the Data for the purposes of the Project, the City will disclose the Data (including your personal information if provided) to its third-party service providers, including Social Pinpoint Pty Ltd, Converlens Pty Ltd and Amazon Web Services.

Other than as stated above, your personal information will not be disclosed to any external party without your consent, except as required or authorised by law.

Our privacy policy is available on our website. If you wish to alter any of the personal information you have supplied to the City, please contact us by sending an email to privacy@geelongcity.vic.gov.au.