About the 'Bendigo Ice Skating Association'

The Bendigo Ice Skating Stadium was built around 1986.

The Bendigo Ice Skating Association Inc was formed to run the rink around 1994, after the rink business was put up for sale.

BISA is a not for profit incorporated association which has run the rink, with various managers, under the guidance of the BISA management committee for the past 15 years.

November 2007 was coming up to the point where the rink would close for the Christmas period for periodic maintenance however due to an early extreme of hot weather combined with a major breakdown in the plant the centre was forced to close one month early.

The plant breakdown caused a financial problem that saw the City of Greater Bendigo council step in with a $100,000 loan to BISA to perform plant overhaul, general revamp of the centre and clear some ongoing debt.

In February 2008 the council agreed to the loan and many very dedicated volunteers began a massive re vamp of the rink.

There has been a very positive response by volunteers to assist in the overhaul of the rink both on the ice surface and the general surrounds of the building inside and outside.  A total of 500 volunteers put in around 5000 hours to see the rink reopen.

Some of the work performed was to dig out and re lay over 13 km of pipes which carry around 8000 litres of glycol (anti freezing agent), to overhaul the plant and the Zamboni (ice cutting machine), to complete internal painting, improve the carpark and grounds and to restore and upgrade boots.

A master plan of running the rink with an employee and a bank of volunteers from the rink user groups (Figure Skating, Hockey, Curling and Speed Skating) and other volunteer groups was manifested to enable major works to be done and to enable the rink to trade in a positive manner.

All groups including the council are committed to seeing a new rink facility established and operating in Bendigo in the next 3-5 years.

BISA have many wonderful sponsors to thank for their generous donations to help re-open the rink.  These include:

Northgate Minerals, Allied Pickfords, Goldfields Surface Coatings, Able Presentations, GB'S workshop, Repco Auto Parts, Retravision, Harvey Norman, Sharmon Trading, Kangaroo Flat Community House, Bolts & Fasteners, TK bin hire, City of Greater Bendigo, Van der Graff family, Country Forklift Tyres, Coca Cola, CVGT, KAS Manufacturing, AWM Electrical, Leader Electrics and many, many, many more.