Building B497
Building aerial – B497
Site aerial – B497
A Clubhouse and All-Weather Field at Callan Park!
A NEW CLUBHOUSE AT LAST!
The State Government is currently pursuing its plans for activating and upgrading Callan Park, where our main home fields are located and where we have been playing since our early beginnings over 50 years ago. The first phase of the Landscape Structure Plan (LSP) includes the demolition of non-heritage buildings along the Bay Run, west of Waterfront Fields, to create new open space known as Waterfront Green.
Phase 2 of the LSP includes the refurbishment of Building 497 as a clubhouse and sports community facility and, once Building 497 is complete, the demolition of the grandstand/pavilion which currently houses our canteen, storage areas and toilets. Details of the Government’s proposals can be found here.
Greater Sydney Parklands has run a public tender process for the lease of the building. Following our submission of a successful tender and securing grant funding to support our proposal, the Club is currently working with the State Government to finalise proposals for the refurbishment of the building. Works are expected to start on site later in 2024. The early development of the new clubhouse will enable us to transition from the grandstand building as soon as possible.
This is a fantastic opportunity to improve this part of Callan Park by removing the eyesore of the grandstand and bringing an existing building into active use. It would provide us with canteen, storage, meeting spaces and modern, accessible toilet facilities, and support our long-established presence at Callan Park. The eventual demolition of the grandstand will create more open space next to our Waterfront Drive fields and provide much-needed warmup areas.
Sydney’s ‘secret garden’ revamp to complete missing link in Bay Run (SMH, Jan 2021)
Changing practices in mental health care emerged in response to the high numbers of shell-shocked soldiers returning from the First World War. Broughton Hall Estate was offered to the government to accommodate shell-shocked soldiers in 1915, becoming the 13th Army Auxiliary Hospital, the first hospital facility dealing specifically with soldiers’ mental health. After this time, repatriation services became one of the main functions of Callan Park, with additional facilities built in the grounds. Repatriation Hospital Ward B (B497) was the first purpose-built ward constructed in the early 1920s to a design by the Government Architect. The design is arranged around a central mess hall with ward wings at each side.
Located adjacent to the waterfront zone, the building is classified as having low heritage significance in the 2002 and the 2011 Conservation Management Plans for the overall site. However, there is no doubt that B497 has historical and social value as the first purpose-built structure related to the Repatriation Hospital.
AN ALL-WEATHER FIELD AT WATERFRONT DRIVE – WE NEED YOUR VOTE FOR WATERFRONT DRIVE BY 11 FEBRUARY!
Whilst many clubs that we compete with currently have access to an all-weather playing surface, Balmain & District Football Club (BDFC), despite being the largest community football club in the country, have been unable to obtain access to such a facility. The recently completed all-weather facilities at Rudd Park, Strathfield Park and Tempe Reserve show what can be offered by such facilities. Due to their hard-wearing nature, all-weather fields provide a facility that enables community use to be optimised whilst maintaining a high-quality playing surface.
Members may well be aware that our Club had been hoping to secure access for our members to an all-weather playing field at the recently opened Rozelle Parklands. However, we have now been told that the parklands delivered by the State Government will not include an all-weather playing surface. Instead, as announced by Mayor Darcy Byrne and NSW Minister for Roads, John Graham, the State Government is making a $20 million budget available to Inner West Council for it to identify and deliver an all-weather playing field elsewhere in our area, as well as providing other local facilities.
As a result, Inner West Council has resolved to consider four existing playing fields for conversion to an all-weather playing surface and is currently seeking community feedback on which field to select. The four fields under consideration include our home playing fields at Waterfront Drive in Callan Park and at Easton Park. The other two fields being considered are at Balmain Road in Callan Park and Leichhardt No.2 near the Leichhardt Swimming Pool.
The BDFC Club Executive has unanimously resolved to advocate for one of our two playing fields at Waterfront Drive to be selected for conversion to an all-weather surface. This is based upon the obvious benefits of providing an improved playing surface for all year-round use, alongside the building for which funding has now been secured to be renovated and converted into the new BDFC clubhouse and community facility.
Choosing to provide the new surface at Waterfront Drive would enable its use to draw on the new facilities being provided at the clubhouse – which includes toilets and changerooms – and the existing 200-lux floodlighting and would not impact on any nearby residences.
Our club is keen to pursue the new hybrid grass technology for the all-weather surface, delivering a modern mixture of grass and manufactured materials, drawing on the great advancements that have been made in the development of all-weather playing surfaces.
We are strongly advocating to Inner West Council to select the Waterfront Drive field for all-weather use and, in doing so, provide improved facilities for our 3,000+ members, many of whom live on and around the WestConnex tunnel facility and have lived through the impacts of its construction over the last few years.
As BDFC members will be aware, our Club has been advocating to Inner West Council to provide more fields and improved playing surfaces for decades; this new funding is a great opportunity for the Council to meet the needs of the local sporing community.
Examples of the recent installations at Rudd Park and Strathfield are below.
