The grassy expanses of the Victoria Park Lake area will begin an incredible transformation into two world-standard beach volleyball courts, fit to host some of the best players in the world on the weekend of 4 – 5 March.
Inland beach volleyball courts are nothing new in places throughout Europe like Paris, Berlin and Prague, and now Shepparton will be able to add its name to the impressive list of cities without a beach which have hosted a World Tour tournament.
Over the coming days more than 800 tonne of sand will be transported from a quarry in Tocumwal, almost one hour away, and offloaded at the Lake.
In all, 27 truckloads of sand will be delivered; but it’s not as simple as picking up from the quarry and dumping in Shepparton.
The 50-tonne trucks bringing the sand from Tocumwal are too heavy to drive on to the site, so the sand will be dumped on the outskirts of Shepparton, and then ferried into the venue by two 10-tonne trucks.
There, a bob-cat and excavator will put the finishing touches on two courts which will be seen around the world.
As well as a small mountain of pristine sand, 200 hay bales and 20 metres of builders black plastic will be used to build a retaining wall and set the foundations for the two courts.
