‘Oval peg in round hole’: proposed Macquarie Point sports stadium hammered on heritage grounds

A Macquarie Point-based stadium would lack the surrounding parklands which have made the MCG and Adelaide Oval so successful with fans, the Planning Commission has been told. LATEST >>

Stadium opponent Roland Browne. Picture: Chris Kidd

A Macquarie Point-based stadium would lack the surrounding parklands which have made the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Adelaide Oval so successful, and would be “an oval peg in a round hole” at the heritage-rich site, the Tasmanian Planning Commission has been told.

Giving evidence before a TPC panel assessing the state government’s proposal for a multi-purpose facility that would serve as the playing home for the Tasmania Devils football club, representatives from anti-stadium group, Our Place Hobart, also claimed the project had already created deep community divisions, and would end up creating more problems than it solved.

New renders of the proposed Macquarie Point stadium, home of the Tasmanian Devils. Provided May 26, 2025.

Our Place’s Roland Browne told a public hearing on Wednesday that the stadium was sited on land once earmarked for much-needed public housing, and that the AFL-driven infrastructure proposal had been imposed on Tasmanians without a credible planning process.

“This was a political decision, and the community has been playing catch-up ever since,” Mr Browne said.

“Far from solving all of the state’s problems, constructing this stadium at this location will, in fact, be the beginning of many problems that the state will have to solve.

“And it is at this point that the planning issues with which this Commission has to grapple with loom large.

“And many of those problems will not be solvable despite the confident assertions of the proponent.

“So much is being reorganised and recalibrated to make this project fit into this utterly inappropriate location.”

Mr Browne said the scale and design of the stadium would unacceptably alter views from a number of key vantage points across Hobart, including the tourist hot spot of Sullivans Cove, and the nearby Cenotaph.

The outspoken stadium opponent described visual impact evidence provided by the project’s proponents as flawed, saying the materials had not given the Commission the necessary level of detail required for its members to make an informed judgment.

Roland Browne who is part of Our Place who are against the stadium being built at Macquarie Point. No Stadium Rally in Hobart at parliament lawns. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Mainland-based urban planner and designer, Tim Biles, who was commissioned by Our Place to produce an expert report on the Macquarie Point proposal, told the TPC hearings that while a stadium could make a significant contribution to a city, location and surrounding amenity were vital for success.

Mr Biles said that while the MCG and the Adelaide Oval thrived in their leafy surrounds, mistakes had been made at Waverley Park in outer-suburban Melbourne, and to a lesser extent at the city’s Docklands stadium.

“Melbourne and Adelaide work because of the parkland around them, but the [Macquarie Point] site is too tight,” Mr Biles said.

“And from my perspective, the investigation into alternative sites was scant in Hobart.

“So all the energy that [consultants] have put into this site, in my view, is largely a waste of time.

“And it squanders the place of the Cenotaph.

“The Cenotaph says ‘lest we forget’. But the AFL has forgotten, and they need to be told that in very clear and unequivocal terms.”

The TPC hearings, being held as part of the Project of State Significance legislation process, are due to conclude on Friday.

Originally published as ‘Oval peg in round hole’: proposed Macquarie Point sports stadium hammered on heritage grounds