‘Nothing dictatorial about it’: Field closed in fresh clash over 132 townhouses in rugby heartland

T.G. Millner Field at Marsfield will immediately cease to operate as a community sports asset after a bid by Ryde Council to rezone the field as open space left the owners, North Ryde RSL, furious.

President Jim Morris wrote to club members advising them that “after 75 years of continuous operation, all bookings from local and regional sports clubs have been cancelled, and the [T.G. Millner] fields are now closed”.

An artist’s impression of how T.G. Millner Field would look when redeveloped.

The decision follows Ryde Council Mayor Trenton Brown tabling a mayoral minute that proposed to rezone T.G. Millner into the RE1 Public Recreation Zone, which would prevent a planned development of 132 terrace houses.

This is the second attempt by Ryde Council to stop the development of the spiritual home of Eastwood Rugby Union. In 2022, the council proposed to compulsorily acquire the property but failed to secure the $75 million required or obtain financial support or consent from the NSW government.

“This land grab by stealth will make our property at Marsfield close to worthless and will place North Ryde RSL in a perilous financial position,” North Ryde RSL chief executive Joe Kelly said. “This behaviour might be expected in a dictatorial state, not in the democracy we live in.”

North Ryde RSL purchased T.G. Millner from a cash-strapped Eastwood Rugby in 2017, after holding a lease on the property since 2000. The property is zoned RE2, which allows for a seniors living development.

An application was lodged in 2022 to rezone the sports grounds to R2, which allows low-density housing. The project would cater to 132 semi-detached terrace houses and a hectare of public space.

North Ryde RSL’s application was refused on the basis Ryde Council and the then-Perrottet government planned to acquire the property.

The proposal was lodged again in July by North Ryde RSL, which led to Brown’s mayoral minute proposing to “introduce a mechanism to protect public access to TG Millner fields through an amendment to the Ryde Local Environment Plan”.

The rezoning proposal must be lodged with the state government for approval.

“It has been made abundantly clear that Ryde Council does not have the funds or state government support to compulsorily acquire T.G. Millner,” Kelly said.

Brown said: “There is nothing dictatorial about it. We wanted to have negotiations with them [North Ryde RSL] in 2018 for something that is amicable and on commercial terms, and they told us to go away. This is just part of a long-winded legal process.”

Brown recommitted to the need for public open space in the Ryde local government area and took aim at Labor for dropping its support for keeping T.G. Millner as open space.

“For seven years, both Labor and Liberal had a bipartisan position to protect the open space in our growing community,” he said.

Brown said parts of Macquarie University and the M2 were built on compulsorily acquired land because it was necessary for the community.

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