Nudgee’s Recreational Reserve north Brisbane’s sporting hub
It’s the humble piece of land tucked away in a northside suburb that has received the royal treatment of recreational development, and one of the state’s fastest-growing sports will be its crown jewel. Here’s the inside story on how it spelt boom time for locals.
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It’s Brisbane’s newest multi-sports park and recreation reserve and it opened in time for the summer holidays.
Nudgee Recreation Reserve will be home to Football Queensland’s new north Brisbane facilities, as well as a playground, BMX pump track, dog park and much more.
East Brisbane resident Micah Elphick, 11, is part of the BMX YouFor32 talent development program in the Dare Devil Program on the Gold Coast.
Micah loves the idea of having a professional track nearby as he takes the sport seriously.
“It will be very fun and convenient plus it’s located close to home,” he said.
“It provides great access to families like mine.
“The closest one to me is in Darra and there’s one on the north in Bracken Ridge and that’s 40 minutes away.
“It will be engaging, fun and encourage young riders to start BMX and in addition it will help grow the community.
“It will help a lot of kids meet new friends and because it’s open to all ages it will bring people together.
“I love doing tricks and getting lots of air and going high.”
With the support of local Councillor Adam Allan, Brisbane City Council has transformed the former landfill site and brought sports back to the area to ensure residents have access to great open spaces as the city continues to grow.
Football Queensland has been awarded the tender to lease the $35 million transformed Nudgee Recreation Reserve.
This facility will deliver six state-of-the-art playing fields, a clubhouse and community spaces as part of a Metro North hub for football, helping to meet the existing pressures and demands of the 100,000 strong club-based and social participants in the Brisbane LGA, further supporting the delivery of community, development and female football programs.
The shared use sporting fields will cater to multiple sports including touch football, cricket and soccer, a new 223-space car park and pathway connections to Nudgee Train Station and Railway Street for easy access.
The six football fields at Nudgee Recreation Reserve are already booked at 100 per cent capacity from Monday to Friday, well in advance of its official opening in a clear demonstration of participation need and the demand for football facilities.
Football Queensland has deliberately left a number of community-specific slots open on the weekend to accommodate use of the facility by the local community in addition to the delivery of community programs including Girls United, Walking Football, Multicultural Settlement Program and MiniRoos Kick-Off.
Football Queensland will also deliver FQ Academy, FQ Referee Academy, coach education and Queensland state team sessions at the venue, while the facility will deliver valuable field space for a number of local community clubs.
Football Queensland CEO Robert Cavallucci said the Nudgee facility would build vital capacity for the game as Brisbane’s and the state’s largest participation sport continues its rapid growth.
“It will help meet the existing pressures and demands of the 40,000 strong club-based participants in Brisbane LGA and further support the delivery of community, development, and female football programs to the more than 35,000 social players in Brisbane as part of a Metro North Football hub,” he said.
“Enabling infrastructure projects like this are key to delivering opportunities for the thousands of boys and girls who are being turned away by local clubs every season due to a lack of infrastructure to service the current demands of our ever growing game.”
Brisbane City Football Club Vice President Leo Sancini said this is going to do amazing things for football.
“It is offering the community hundreds of opportunities for people in the women’s space and about 200 more players in the boys space who want to play and we can now expand and offer more people to participate,” he said.
“Now we can open up for people on the north side who can specifically play at Nudgee and will cater for future growth especially with the Olympics coming.”
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