Proposed designs for new $5.6 million sport facility upgrade in CBD parklands

Adelaide City Council is about to vote on a $5.6 million upgrade to a dilapidated changerooms to increase the number of female and people with disabilities able to use the facilities.

A dilapidated community sports building in the city’s southern parklands is set to receive a significant upgrade with Adelaide City Council set to approve the long-awaited redevelopment.

It comes after more than eight years since the Adelaide Community Sports and Recreation Association first pushed for an upgrade of the sports building at Park 21W (Golden Wattle Park/Mirnu Wirra), which was first built in the 1960s.

At least 48 teams across netball, football, Auskick and cricket use the facility, with 14 other community sporting groups also subletting the building, which ACSARA leases from the council.

A view of the current sporting facilities at Park 21W. Picture: Brett Hartwig

ACSARA president Mark Borgas said it had been years in the making and had taken a collective effort, time, money and volunteers to see a design and plan approved.

“It’s been a long and frustrating journey during which we have invested thousands of volunteer hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars towards the master plan that had been approved, including lighting and new cricket training needs,” he said.

“The last two years can be best described as a reset, and although we are now faced with a much smaller design, there is at least a policy framework with broad community support, and we are ready to and prepared to invest several million dollars and many more volunteer hours bringing this project to fruition.”

The proposed design of what the new facilities would look like at Park 21W. Picture: Artwork by Allan Sumner/Exhibition Studios via Adelaide City Council.

The total cost of the project is estimated at about $5.6 million and will see the existing 375 sqm building expanded to 583 sqm.

Councillor Henry Davis said the redevelopment came after female participation in sports had significantly grown in recent years, with the number of people who also require disabled access also growing.

“The reality is that we’ve got women playing sport now, we need disabled access toilets, we need to provide much better, we have to separate children and adults when they’re getting changed,” he said.

“I think we’re just going to accept that there are going to be some bare minimums that we’re going to have to deal with, which might increase the footprint.”

A view of the clubrooms. Picture: City of Adelaide

A proposed design the new club rooms from the oval. Picture: City of Adelaide

It comes after sporting clubs told the council that the old facility was inadequate and discouraged female and junior players from participating.

Councillor Janet Giles said the club rooms were not acceptable by community standards and that the upgrade would be an example for future proposals.

“I know this corner of the city particularly well and I know that particular clubroom quite well having played AFL nines there foolishly in my late 50s,” Giles said.

“It’s an example of a clubroom that has been let go to a state that’s not acceptable even by any community standards, for any sport, and requires us to look at our policy and make our commitment that we will take responsibility for making sure that facilities and park lands are of a decent standard.”

The redevelopment was approved by the council’s City Community Services and Culture Committee, which also approved a Park Lands Community Buildings (Sport and Recreation) Policy, aimed at improving the council’s community sports infrastructure in the park lands, factoring in sporting code guidelines.

The council is expected to vote and officially pass the plans at their next meeting on Tuesday, with works slated to begin on the new facility in 2025/26.