AFL facing new revolt over plans to bulldoze suburban parks for a training and admin centre

First it was a political firestorm over a new Hobart stadium, now the AFL faces a revolt in the suburbs over plans to bulldoze local parks for a training complex.

Beth Rees and Karen Crawford Residents of Rosny, on Hobart’s eastern shore, who are fighting plans to convert local parks into an AFL centre. Picture: Matthew Denholm

First it was a political firestorm over a new Hobart stadium, now the AFL faces a revolt in the suburbs over plans to bulldoze local parks for a training complex.

As part of its deal with the AFL to secure the Tasmania Devils team, the state has promised to build a $70m training and administrative base, including two new MCG-sized ovals and a 9000sq m building.

Its choice of site – two adjacent parks at Rosny Park, on Hobart’s eastern shore – has outraged some locals, furious at losing precious parklands.

They’ve gathered enough signatures to force an electors’ poll which, if it goes their way, will force the government and AFL into a difficult decision: ride roughshod over local opinion or start again at another site.

The drama is playing out amid a ticking clock on the state’s deal with the AFL, which stipulates the training complex must have obtained all approvals by December 31.

Residents trying to “save” their parks are confident of securing a majority in the vote, which must be held within 60 days.

“I think we’ll win,” said Terry Polglase, of Save Rosny’s Parks. Such an outcome, he said, should force the project’s immediate abandonment at the current site.

“For goodness sake, the council is meant to listen to what the community wants,” he said.

Clarence City Council mayor Brendan Blomeley, a key advocate for having the training complex – also known as a high performance centre, or HPC - in Rosny dismissed the opponents as a “vocal minority”.

He pointed out the vote, costing ratepayers $200,000, was not binding and he would not commit to abiding by it. “It feeds into the mix with everything else,” Mr Blomeley said. “If the HPC was not to go ahead, there would be a significant part of the community that would be extremely disappointed and disheartened.”

Mr Blomeley would prefer the complex to be built entirely on Rosny Parklands, the site of an old golf course rather than the current plans to have the second oval built at the adjacent Charles Hand Park.

This is also the preference of the embryonic Tasmania Football Club, but Charles Hand Park is still in the frame because of potential geotechnical problems at Rosny Parklands.

Many are determined not to lose either park or any of the blue gums said to be important foraging habitat for critically endangered swift parrots.

One of the alternative proposals for a Hobart AFL stadium. Picture: Supplied

“Why would you trash an existing and well-established park when there’s something like … seven to 10 ovals within … 3km (of here)?” said local Beth Rees.

Many are perplexed at the choice of site, given that another option found to be suitable, at the existing Twin Ovals in Kingston, on the western shore, appears to have community support and fewer technical problems.

The Tasmanian government suggested it would not be influenced by the vote.

“The elector poll is a matter for the City of Clarence, and the government would assume the outcome of it will be considered by them,” a spokeswoman said. “The Department of State Growth will continue to finalise investigations across both Rosny Parklands and Charles Hand Park - that includes geotechnical, land survey and natural values assessments.”

Of the $70m cost, $60m will come from taxpayers and $10m from the AFL.

Under the AFL deal, all financial risk rests with taxpayers and the complex will be rented to the club for $1.

There is uncertainty over who will pay for leasing the council land, and its rates and charges.

The deal says the club will pay land tax and rates, but the government suggested such details were yet to be fully determined.

The AFL said the club would “continue to work closely with all stakeholders, including the ­Tasmanian government on forward progress”.