Parliamentary Committees

Public Works Committee: Tilley Recreation Park Redevelopment

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:02): I move:

That the 54^th report of the committee, entitled Tilley Recreation Park Redevelopment, be noted.

The Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing has administered funding to assist in the redevelopment of the Tilley Recreation Park, which is located in Surrey Downs and owned by the City of Tea Tree Gully. The scope of the proposed works will incorporate the construction of a new sporting clubroom and amenities, upgraded sporting fields, athletics and tennis facilities, a dog park and new community amenities and surrounding landscaping.

The Tilley Recreation Park serves as an important community sporting asset and public open space. It is one of Tea Tree Gully's most utilised parks and features two grassed areas which are predominantly used for soccer and athletics, three community buildings, nine tennis courts, a playground and picnic and barbecue areas. The park and facilities are regularly used by several local sporting clubs and community groups, including the Golden Grove Tennis Club, the Tea Tree Players Theatre group, Tea Tree Gully City Soccer Club, Golden Grove Little Athletics, the Roadrunners Softball Club and the Golden Grove Boxing Gym.

The predominant users of the park are over 450 members who play soccer weekly throughout the northern suburbs. The grounds do not provide adequate clubroom facilities. Currently, these players use a community building not specifically designed for use as a clubroom, and there is no dedicated undercover area for spectator viewing of soccer matches on the adjacent pitches. As well as the sporting and community groups mentioned, there are regular and casual hirers, and many council-run programs in the buildings within the reserve.

Due to growing demand from the community to improve the sporting and community infrastructure as well as the ageing community assets within the park, the Tea Tree Gully council developed a master plan in 2021. This master plan aimed to futureproof the site for the community and capture the needs of users over the coming years, not only making it a specific place for clubs but also opening the park to the rest of the community for more informal recreation, with an ultimate aim to promote and support opportunities for the community to enhance their health and wellbeing through physical and social activities.

The redevelopment aims to provide users with facilities that meet current and future needs, in line with relevant building regulations and sporting facility standards. It will address safety and security concerns in conjunction with protecting and celebrating the heritage and vegetation of the locale through developing and maintaining community infrastructure to address the needs of the Tea Tree Gully community.

The capital cost of the development is $9.5 million, and construction has commenced, with practical completion expected at the end of this year. Once complete, the new Tilley Recreation Park will include the following buildings, sporting fields and amenities:

a new clubroom with change rooms, umpires' rooms, a kiosk and a training and weights room. It will include a bar and function room with a supporting kitchen, as well as a balcony area with seating overlooking the oval;

a realigned soccer pitch with new lighting and drainage;

Little Athletics improvements, including new discus cages and shot-put circles;

improved car parking;

improved vehicle and pedestrian access across the site;

new toilet amenities;

softball club storage;

upgrades to the entrance to the theatre;

a new dog park; and

improvements to tennis facilities.

The introduction of the dog park and improvements to pathways and signage aim to increase the use of the reserve for informal recreational activities, such as dog walking and exercise. The submitted plans also include additional tree planting to assist in increasing the reserve's tree canopy for the long term.

The Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing has confirmed that project management will be managed by the City of Tea Tree Gully's project management office and will follow best-practice processes. The project has adopted key sustainable development strategies to achieve sustainable objectives, which includes ensuring that the community and environment of the reserve are well protected and cared for.

Reduction of the carbon footprint will occur through the collective efforts of the community and council, and the consumption of natural resources will be minimised through reducing, re-using and recycling products and materials and using renewable resources. The clubroom will also incorporate active design strategies to ensure the sustainable development objectives are reached. Extensive consultation has been undertaken to advise on the new clubroom's location and design, with community engagement ongoing throughout the life cycle of the project.

After consultation with the Attorney-General's Department Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation Unit, it was determined that there are no registered or reported Aboriginal sites, objects or ancestral remains within the project area. An assessment of the risk of encountering previously unknown and unrecorded Aboriginal heritage sites has been undertaken and has established that, because the land is within 200 metres of a watercourse, there may be a possibility of encountering Aboriginal sites and objects.

It has been noted that discovery protocols will be utilised should an inadvertent discovery be made during construction. There are no state, local or contributory non-Aboriginal heritage-listed places expected to be directly impacted by the project. The theatre building on site is listed as a local heritage site; however, there are no works proposed for the heritage-listed sections.

The committee examined written and oral evidence in relation to the Tilley Recreation Park redevelopment. Witnesses who appeared before the committee were Ryan McMahon, Chief Executive Officer, City of Tea Tree Gully; Justin Robbins, General Manager, Strategy and Finance, City of Tea Tree Gully; Greg Salmon, Manager, Project Management Office, City of Tea Tree Gully; Erica Vidinis, Strategic Project and Stakeholder Manager, City of Tea Tree Gully; and Tim Nicholas, Director, Corporate Strategy and Investment, Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing. I thank the witnesses for their time. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the member for King for expressing her support for the project.

Based upon the evidence considered and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public work.

Mrs PEARCE (King) (11:08): I rise to reflect the support from my local community for this very important upgrade. It is certainly something that I have heard at the many sporting clubs that utilise that space and also from local residents who take great pride in this park through all the many uses that they utilise it for. It is a big part of why this upgrade was a commitment that I made to our local community to ensure that it continues to service our community for generations to come.

Tilley Recreation Park is home to Golden Grove Little Athletics; the Golden Grove Tennis Club; the Golden Grove Boxing Gym; the Tea Tree Players, a fantastic theatre group that we have out in the north-east; and the Road Runners Softball Club, and it supports a wide range of social groups and organisations through the Tea Tree Gully council.

One of those, in fact, is the upcoming Talk Out Loud quiz night, raising important funds for mental health support in the north-eastern suburbs. But of course, most famously it is known for being the home of the Tea Tree Gully City Soccer Club. This is a club that consists of about 450 members who attend the facility on a weekly basis. It is a heavily engaged local community club that does a lot of work with local families in the area but also with our support services and volunteers. The club is famously known for hosting the amazing CFS Shield each year with another amazing local soccer club in my local community, the One Tree Hill Soccer Club.

What they do is raise important funds for two of our local CFS stations, the Salisbury station and the Tea Tree Gully station, to ensure that they can continue to do the vital work that they do, but also to give them an opportunity to thank them for everything they do in our community, particularly coming to the end of a very busy bushfire season. That event is actually coming up in a couple of weeks. I am looking forward to being there again with the member for Newland and the member for Wright, providing some support and some additional shelter for the activities of the day ahead.

As I said earlier, these upgrades will help to meet the community's needs for generations to come. It will help to ensure that they remain inclusive for the diverse range of uses at this park and also that they continue to remain fit for purpose. This desire from my local community to see this happen does go beyond the sporting clubs. It is also benefiting the general members of our community who like to come to the recreation park to walk around, to keep active and all the various activities that they can do there.

One of the most exciting features of the upgrade that benefits them that I have heard strongly about is the introduction of a dog park at this facility. Currently, we might see people walking around the facilities but our closest park is some while away, so this is an excellent way to get people out and active with their pets and also engaging with one another. With those very quick remarks, I would like to echo that this community strongly supports the upgrade of this facility.

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:12): I would like to again thank the member for King not only for her contribution to this debate and her support for this project but also for her contribution to the deliberations of the committee. However, it would be remiss of me not to mention the other members of the committee—the member for Elder, the member for Hartley and the member for Schubert—and again to thank them for their contributions to the consideration of this particular matter. I again commend this report to the house.

Motion carried.