INTRODUCTION
| The Waverley Lions Club
has a long and close relationship with Licola Wilderness Village. The club provides funds
each year to allow several groups of children to visit the camp. |
LIONS WILDERNESS VILLAGE LICOLA
|
Lions Village Licola or Lions
Wilderness Village is located in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range
near the Alpine National Park on the banks of the very beautiful
Macalister River. The camp is 54 kilometres north of Heyfield in
Gippsland on a sealed road with spectacular views of the river valley and
the Great Dividing Range - a comfortable two and a half hours' drive from
Melbourne..
The founder of the Lions
Village at Licola in 1969, Ian Stockdale was a member of the Lions Club of
Waverley and he received magnificent support from fellow Lions Neville
Gibson, Ray Ware, Dudley Sherlock and many other Lions. The purpose of
Licola was and still is to provide holiday experiences for disadvantaged,
underprivileged and disabled children and to offer camps for schools,
adults and community organisations. It is still used for this purpose
to-day and is owned and operated by the Lions Clubs of Victoria and
Southern New South Wales who meet the total cost of camps attended by
children on the school holiday programmes.
Major changes to Licola have been a total
upgrade of sleeping facilities (the bunks from Sydney 2000 Olympic
Village.), an outdoor heated swimming pool, a modern commercial kitchen
able to cater for several hundreds of meals per day, an indoor stadium of
90 squares, and an extremely efficient electricity supply.
The self improvement programme includes
activities such as a high ropes and low ropes course, rock climbing and ab-sailing
wall, canoeing, archery, inground trampolines and mini-golf course. It
also boasts a well equipped on-site hospital, large dining area which also
may be used as a large theatre/function hall.
The accommodation is made up of 16 independent
3 and 4 bedroom houses. Each bedroom contains up to 6 bunks, giving the
village total sleeping capacity for around 300 clients. All houses are
heated during the winter period and all contain some cooking facilities.
Most have 2 bathrooms, a lounge area, 2 toilets and an external covered
verandah.
Due to Lions Village Licola being an
Accredited Campsite it is used by many schools as part of their Camps
Programme and as more schools are becoming aware of the facilities
available the popularity of Licola is growing.
Costs for the use of Licola may be acquired
from the Village management by direct contact. Phone 51488791 FAX 51488790
A link to the Licola web site is http://www.licola.org.au
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