Maiden Gully YCW Football Netball Club has been allowed back into its sports ground buildings after its Catholic Church landlord changed the locks to keep them out.
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The state's planning umpire - the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) - has ruled the community sports club does not have to forfeit its lease of sports ground buildings.
The decision allows the YCW Sporting and Social Club (Bendigo) - commonly known as Maiden Gully YCW - to protect 10 remaining years of its lease at Backhaus Oval, despite allegedly breaching its agreement with the church.
VCAT has detailed why it thinks that would be a fair outcome in newly published reasons.
"It is not a case where the landlord will suffer a loss as YCW has always met its financial obligations under the lease," tribunal member Holly Nash said.
The ruling ends months of uncertainty after the church re-entered the premises and changed the locks in a dispute over Maiden Gully YCW's decision to hire out buildings to disability support service Windarring without permission.
The tribunal had heard the football and netball club did not think it needed permission because of a clause in the lease agreement allowing it to hire out facilities without consent as part of some 'day-to-day' operations, like social gatherings.
Maiden Gully YCW signed off on a more permanent agreement in 2020 with Windarring.
The tribunal found it unlikely that agreement could be classed as a 'day-to-day' management of the club's premises.
Ms Nash said the only direct evidence the church knew about Windarring's presence was from the latter half of 2022.
The church served the club's president with a notice alleging a lease breach in May 2023 and demanded rectification within two weeks.
It re-entered the property several weeks later after Maiden Gully YCW failed to address the issue, and changed the facility's locks.
The tribunal heard no-one was trying to hide Windarring's presence from the church. The disability service had, for example, erected signs at the sports ground advertising its presence.
The church and the City of Greater Bendigo have now "openly agreed" to help Windarring relocate, Ms Nash said.
In the meantime, the church has made its own deal with the disability service to operate at Backhaus Oval, she said.
YCW first leased the sport grounds' facilities from the church in 1993 and was a fixture there until 2017, when it began playing games at Marist College in Maiden Gully.
It has 10 years left on its lease and uses revenue from hiring out facilities to subsidise its expenses.
Ms Nash ruled that allowing the club to keep its lease was the fairest outcome, given Windarring was expected to move out.
The decision would mean Maiden Gully YCW would not lose the income it was expecting over the next 10 years, she said.
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Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
