Bulldozers set to move in as Ballymore redevelopment begins

Some 23 years after first being floated, the redevelopment of Ballymore, the home of Queensland rugby, is about to happen,

An artist’s impression of the redeveloped Ballymore Stadium in Brisbane

Some 23 years after first being floated as a possibility, the redevelopment of Ballymore, the home of Queensland rugby, is finally about to happen, with the bulldozers barely a week away from demolishing the McLean Stand.

And Paul McLean couldn’t be more delighted.

The western stand at the ground is not named after him exclusive but after his famous family, which contributed no few than seven members of the Australian rugby union side, including two captains – Bill, a commando in World War II who led the 1947-48 Wallabies to Britain and Paul himself, who led the team against Fiji in 1981.

But with controversy surrounding the redevelopment — former QRU chairman Peter Lewis, former deputy chairman Lyn Crowley and a former Australian Rugby Union chairman Dick McGruther all opposed it — McLean has come down firmly in support of a project, which had received $30 million backing from the Queensland and federal governments.

“I’m absolutely in agreement with the overwhelming bulk of Queensland rugby supporters who all realise Ballymore is an ageing asset which is costing an enormous amount in upkeep.”

Nor will McLean feel any pangs of remorse as the demolishers’ crash ball first hits home. “I didn’t actually spend much time sitting in it back in the day,” quipped the man who helped draw huge crowds in his 100-game career for Queensland. “But it is a really positive venture and let’s get it done.”

The redevelopment, which had to clear a final hurdle, an application lodged with the Queensland Heritage Council, has been done with a degree of historic sensitivity. The new stand’s capacity will be 3010 – compared with the existing 3008 – and not only will it continue to bear the name of Queensland rugby’s most famous family, but it has also been designed almost as a replica of the old one.

Mention of a redevelopment was first made in the official report of the QRU in 1998 and, at various stages over time, artists’ impressions have been published – none of which ever came to fruition. It had seemed the project was finally about to be green-lit in 2007 only for the incoming Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to scuttle the funding guaranteed by the outgoing one, John Howard.

But as ever, it was more complicated than that and even before the change of government, the code had confused various federal sports ministers by using various spokesmen for different kinds of redevelopments.

In the end, Cricket Australia learned the then $20 million project was losing support – and funding. Faster than a Shane Warne flipper, Cricket Australia dusted off its plans for the construction of a National Cricket Centre in Brisbane – and within 72 hours the money seemingly destined for Ballymore was redirected some 5km away, to the NCC at Albion.

Ironically, one of the key players in securing that cricket funding, then Australian team media manager Philip Pope, found himself moving to Queensland and securing new employment – with the QRU. Ever since, he has been working to effectively bring rugby up to where it might have been before he and others did such a masterly job of hijacking government funding.

Although both the state and federal government had shown increasing signs of interest in the project, it was not until Queensland Premier Anastasia Palasczuk was entranced by the extraordinary gold medal battle in women’s sevens between Australia and NZ at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and contacted QRU general manager (government) Matt Horan the next day that things began to move.

With games minister Kate Jones and local member Grace Grace strongly in favour of a women’s training base being located alongside the Reds at Ballymore, the project started to take shape. First things first, securing federal government funding: to everyone’s surprise, Labor defied decades of cultural antipathy by backing rugby, forcing the Liberals – with some gentle prodding from former PM Howard — to do likewise.

The matching $15 million from the state government was initially delayed because of COVID-19, but late last year, it too was approved.

QRU CEO Dave Hanham who, with highly influential businessman and former Wallaby Damian Frawley, has helped steer the project through, believes there is no reason why Ballymore cannot become not just the training base for the Wallaroos but the Wallabies.

“I believe Ballymore’s best decades are ahead of it – as a training base of the British and Irish Lions in 2025, potentially some pool matches in the World Cup of 2027 and as a training and competition base for the Brisbane Olympics in 2032. Indeed, part of the QRU’s plans include an Olympic-standard climbing wall. Given its long hard climb to get to the top, that seems curiously appropriate.