Yandina Pony Club in limbo: Seeking new home amidst growth

The thriving club’s membership has more than doubled over eight years to close to 130 and has outgrown its facilities. 

by Janine Hill

IT was the Australian pony club of the year last year, but the Yandina Pony Club is effectively homeless.

The pony club has been forced to use other club grounds and even hold events off the Sunshine Coast because its 1.2ha Andersons Road grounds are too small and have no water or electricity.

Sunshine Coast Council, which has high hopes of hosting Olympic events in 2032, has not connected the basic infrastructure the club has been seeking for at least eight years.

President Kate Pilcher said that without water, it is difficult for the pony clubbers to give their steeds a drink.

“We have a solar pump and a tank and can pump some water but people generally have to bring their own water for their horses,” she said.

While waiting for the council to come to the party with water and electricity, the thriving club’s membership has more than doubled over eight years to close to about 130, meaning the grounds are too small for it.

Kate said 4ha grounds at Fellowship Drive, Doonan, which had been used by the Eumundi Pony Club prior to its closure last year, would be suitable but were occupied by Hoofbeats, a horse sanctuary and trauma healing service for women and girls.

“The council contacted us 12 months ago saying, ‘We’ve found a solution. Would you like to go to the old Eumundi Pony Club grounds?’ Absolutely. And then they said we can’t get in for at least 12 months.”

Kate said the council then offered the pony club the use of another section of the Fellowship Drive property but it was over-run with weeds and unsafe.

Kate said the council has made other suggestions, including using the Nambour Showgrounds, which turned out to be fully booked; using other pony clubs’ grounds, which came at a cost; or seeking out private land, which it did but the council then demanded the club obtain event permits or apply for a material change of use, at a cost of thousands of dollars.

Secretary Chenoa Trama said the club would be “club-hopping” around four different locations in February and March and was unlikely to be able to host some of the events it had planned for 2024.

“We keep seeing light at the end of the tunnel but then it goes dark,” she said.

Kate said the lack of a suitable, permanent grounds was starting to affect the thriving club’s membership.

“We’re now in danger of losing members because we haven’t got suitable grounds,” she said.

Kate said swapping the locations of Hoofbeats and Yandina Pony Club made sense but the pony club would also be interested in sharing Fellowship Drive with Hoofbeats.

A Sunshine Coast Council spokesman said the council had been in discussions with Yandina Pony Club about a tenure solution at Fellowship Drive, Doonan.