THE former home of one of Australia’s most vaunted sporting clubs has been left to rot – literally – while arguments continue about the future of the site.
This year marks seven years since the Balmain Leagues Club was sold for $1 in exchange for its buyer inheriting the club’s $22million-plus debt.
But a series of shocking photos captured by Sydney photographer Brett Patman shows just how far the once-proud building has fallen into disrepair.
Squatters have taken up residence, floors are rotting from water damage and almost every wall has been covered in graffiti.
Meanwhile, the wrangling continues over what is to become of the site and who is to blame for its condition, with developer Ian Wright blaming Leichhardt Council, Mayor Darcy Byrne blaming Mr Wright and angry residents just wanting it all to come to a resolution they can live with.
Mr Wright and his Rozelle Village development company have tried and failed repeatedly to get the green light for large-scale development of the site, consisting of residential towers, shops and a new leagues club home.
But opponents shot down the initial 32-storey proposal, and several others that gradually decreased in height.
The current iteration consists of 135 apartments across a 12-storey tower and an eight-storey tower, the leagues club, a supermarket and 15 specialty shops.
Under the latest proposal, which is set for a NSW Land & Environment Court hearing in March, the leagues club would get the right to lease part of the site back for 45 years at market value.
“Everything that can be done is being done,” Mr Wright said yesterday, in relation to the building’s current state.
“We’ve got a perimeter fence around the entire site and we have four security patrols per night so there’s not much else we can do.”
“The real issue is why it is like it is, and the simple answer to that is Leichhardt Council’s incompetence.”
Mr Wright claimed his current proposal was “fully compliant” with the council’s planning controls and should be approved.
But mayor Darby Byrne argued that approval should not be given until Mr Wright agreed to let the leagues club take up permanent residence at the site for minimal rent.
“Our primary objective, as has been promised by the developer all along, is to make sure the Balmain Tigers will have a permanent home in the heartland of Rozelle through this redevelopment,” he said.
“At the moment, that’s far from guaranteed.”
“In terms of the building, I think it’s appalling that Rozelle Village has allowed it to become as dilapidated as it is. Balmain Tigers should never have been moved out of the building in the first place.”
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Hundreds of people – many of them local residents and loyal Tigers fans – took to Mr Patman’s Lost Collective Facebook page, where he posted the photos on Saturday, to air their sadness and disgust at the site’s condition and about the ongoing development saga.
Rozelle Residents Action Group spokesman David Anderson said the block should never have been rezoned for such high-density development.
“There is overwhelming local opposition to the current proposal development due to its negative impacts,” he said.
“We are, however, supportive of a council initiated rezoning, with building heights of six and eight storeys and a substantially reduced retail component.”
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