By JESSE GRAHAM
A HEALESVILLE Amateur Racing Club member has dismissed fears that winding up the club in the future would see half the money from the sale leaving town, following a meeting on 26 June.
On Sunday 26 June, HARC members gathered for a special meeting, to vote on a change to the constitution of the club.
The changes included adopting new model rules prepared by Country Racing Victoria (CRV), with the inclusion of a special clause that, on the winding up of the club, surplus money will be donated to charities within 10 kilometres of the Healesville Post Office, with money to also go to groups with similar purpose to the club – promoting and encouraging thoroughbred racing.
HARC member Roger Davies raised concerns that the funding would be a 50/50 split in an open letter to the Mail ahead of the meeting.
But HARC committee member and former president John O’Neil said there was no clause stating what percentage of the money would go to charity or racing bodies.
“At the end of the day, that would be determined by the committee of the day,” he said.
“Effectively, I think you’ll find … the majority of all the funds will go to local charitable institutions.
“If the unforseen ever did happen in the future and the club did have to wind up, it’d be local people determining – the club’s been going since 1947, I’d like to think it’ll be going until 2047.”
Mr O’Neil told the Mail ahead of the meeting that the club had engaged a solicitor to argue the club’s case, in keeping the clause of money going to local charities.
“We argued hard, but their view is that most of the infrastructure had been paid for by racing authorities and they are looking at clawing back some of that investment if the place got wound up,” he said.
“At the end of the day, they held pretty firm, and we did too … getting that concession was like getting blood out of a stone.
“Ultimately, we got the best result we could.”
He said Healesville was unique as a racing club in that it owned the course, purchased with money raised by the sale of debentures to local people around the 1940s.
The changes were approved with 66 votes to two, and Mr O’Neil said there was no “substantial change” to the existing constitution.
“We’re the last club in Victoria to adopt the model rules – that was only because we had to fight to keep that clause, and we needed ministerial approval to do that,” he said.
“The members were quite satisfied with the outcome, which is good.
“We’re looking forward to another successful racing season.”
