Two sports fields in Lilyfield’s Callan Park will be converted to synthetic, all-weather turf in an $8 million project that will reignite tensions over the 61-hectare site sometimes called “the jewel of the inner west”.
Fields on Waterfront Drive and Balmain Road will be converted as part of a long-standing pledge to increase the capacity of sporting facilities in the inner west, and in particular to accommodate the growth of women’s and girls’ sport.
Paul Avery of the Balmain District Football Club said some teams had lost a third of their games this season due to wet weather.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Paul Avery, president of Balmain District Football Club – whose home ground is Waterfront Drive – said rain had affected this season “enormously”, with some teams losing a third of their games.
While those aged 13 and up have their games rescheduled – meaning double headers on the weekends or mid-week matches – younger players miss out.
“A lot of them are trying football for the first time … they get quite disillusioned,” Avery said. “It’s been really difficult, and frustrating for parents.”
Labor mayor Darcy Byrne proposes to fund the facilities from a state government grant initially intended to improve Rozelle Parklands, and will bring the plan to next week’s council meeting, where Labor has a majority.
The two fields at Waterfront Drive in Callan Park. One will be converted to an all-weather surface, the other will stay the same.Credit: Wolter Peeters
“Following the Matildas’ success and the influx of women and girls into football, these two new playing surfaces in Callan Park are desperately needed,” he said.
“The welfare of local kids must be our priority, and we want to see an end to children being disappointed when half their season is washed out due to rain.”
Byrne says the two fields account for less than 2 per cent of Callan Park, and turning them into all-weather grounds will “massively increase community use” of the site. There were also five natural fields nearby, including another at Waterfront Drive which won’t be touched, King George Park, and two at Glover Street.
But the move will incite opposition from the park’s praetorian guard, the Friends of Callan Park, a community group that lists retaining natural grass among its 14 priorities for the 61-hectare site.
The group formed in 1998 to stop part of the parkland being sold to an aged care facility, and was instrumental in preventing another state government proposal a few years later to sell a parcel of land there for up to 1200 apartments.
Football at the Waterfront Drive sports field in Callan Park on Thursday afternoon.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Friends of Callan Park’s long-serving president Hall Greenland, a former NSW Greens convener and former local councillor, said there were “a heap of reasons why a rational person would oppose the installation of synthetic turf at Callan Park”.
“We’re opposed to it on environmental, health and general community interest grounds,” he said. “It’s a heritage landscape. You don’t put synthetic fields in a heritage landscape.”
Greenland was concerned about microplastics – “we’re supposed to be getting rid of plastics” – and sceptical about how much extra use the all-weather surfaces would actually enable.
“You can’t play in wet weather on the synthetic ones either if it’s pelting down rain,” he said, and “better maintenance and better design of [grass] fields does extend their life quite significantly”.
An independent review of by the NSW chief scientist and engineer, published in 2022, “did not identify major health risks associated with synthetic turf, although there are knowledge gaps”. Evidence of rubber infill and turf fibre blades was also found in NSW waterways.
Byrne said the surfaces were perfectly safe, and Inner West Council now used cork infill, such as at Lambert Park in Leichhardt, which was “much better than rubber” and did not get as hot.
Greens MP for Balmain Kobi Shetty, who is also a councillor, echoed Greenland’s concerns about health, safety and the environment – as well as expense – and said synthetic fields should not be rushed into “as a solution to the poor management of natural playing surfaces in our area”.
She noted any fields in Callan Park would need to be approved by the landowner, the government agency Greater Sydney Parklands, from which council leases the grounds.
A spokesperson said GSP was aware of the council’s proposal for an all-weather sports field in the inner west. The council had acknowledged any proposal in Callan Park would require landowners’ consent and a development application process, they said.
GSP is currently considering submissions on a plan of management for Callan Park, following a recent public consultation.
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