Public Works Committee: Whyalla Sporting Hub

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (11:19): I move:

That the 151^st report of the committee, entitled Whyalla Sporting Hub, be noted.

This project from the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing proposes a joint project with the Football Federation SA Incorporated, from here on referred to as Football SA. The works will construct a sports hub in Whyalla that meets current football standards. Football SA will have responsibility for the management and implementation for the project in accordance with its policies and procedures and the reporting and accountability requirements outlined in its funding agreement with the government of South Australia.

As part of its 2022 state election commitment, the state government dedicated $6 million to build a new sports hub in Whyalla. The Department of State Development, through Planning and Land Use Services, has been developing a strategic master plan for the area. Following discussions with the member for Giles, the Whyalla city council, local community, Football SA, South Australian National Football League, and the Department for Education, it was decided that the Whyalla Secondary College site is the most appropriate location for the new facility.

Open to students in 2022, the secondary college replaced three previous high school campuses in the area. The college site already has a double-court gymnasium and five outdoor multi-use netball/tennis/basketball courts, two full-sized soccer pitches, as well as an Australian Rules football oval that are available to the community. The new sports hub will host junior and senior soccer, women's Australian Rules football, and will be suitable for other field and court sports.

The hub also expects to provide young people with increased opportunity to participate in sport and pathway programs, contribute to a better quality of life for the community by providing modern, accessible infrastructure that is inclusive for women, children, First Nations people and people with a disability, as well as provide facilities that support community pride and that are capable of hosting regional-level competition.

The facility will also be available to the secondary college during school hours. The project works will deliver a new clubroom with change rooms, social space, kitchen, a referees' room and amenities, new fencing, goals and nets, lighting to one pitch, rejuvenation of the oval and two existing turf pitches, as well as minor landscaping.

The site is located at 117 Nicolson Avenue, Whyalla Norrie, on Crown lands administered by the Minister for Education. Upon completion of the project, Football SA will hold the head lease for the facility and will coordinate its use, utilising it as a base for junior and senior soccer, women's Australian Rules football, and its own development programs.

Westlands United Soccer Club will also be a key subtenant of the facility. Construction is anticipated to be completed in June next year and staged completion is being considered to provide early access for training and games. The project is expected to cost $6 million, funded through a grant agreement administered by the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing. Upon completion, operating costs of an estimated $45,000 per year will be borne by the head lessee and user groups.

Costs are expected to be lower than other venues, as the grounds are already maintained by the school, and any increase in maintenance or water costs will be borne by tenants. Whyalla city council has agreed in principle to contribute towards these costs to further reduce the impact on users, recognising the hub's benefits to the broader community.

The project expects the work to generate up to 24 construction jobs, as well as maintain ongoing general maintenance and operations jobs. A project team has been established, including representation from Football SA, the city council, the Department for Education, the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing, and the construction contractor, Thorne Constructions. All procurement will be undertaken in accordance with Football SA's procurement policy. Football SA states that Thorne Constructions is committed to using local trades where possible and has already engaged several local contractors.

The design for the Whyalla sports hub includes several ecological and sustainable initiatives, including:

a 10-kilowatt solar array;

100 per cent use of LED lighting with adaptable control systems;

optimisation of natural light and window glazing;

enhanced thermal insulation and energy-efficient heating, cooling and ventilation;

efficient tapware, showers and toilets;

native plant selection and landscaping to reduce irrigation requirements;

recycled wastewater where appropriate;

recycled and durable building materials, where possible; and

preference of locally sourced materials.

Football SA states there are no state or local heritage places or contributory heritage at the project site. It also states the search of the central archive identified no entries for Aboriginal sites within 500 metres of the works' location. It will also ensure unexpected finds protocols are included in the contractor's conservation environmental management plan.

The Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing and Football SA have engaged in consultation with stakeholders and end users, including the SANFL, Department for Education, Whyalla Secondary College, Whyalla Junior Soccer Association, Westlands United Soccer Club, competition administrators, and the South Australian Sports Institute.

The project team has also consulted several relevant government departments and agencies concerning design and development. The development process considered impact of the works on the local community and notes there are no businesses in the immediate proximity of the project that will be affected by the construction phase.

The committee examined written and oral evidence in relation to the Whyalla sporting hub. Witnesses who appeared before the committee were Adam Trottman, Director, Infrastructure and Planning, Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing; Michael Carter, Chief Executive Officer, Football SA; and Nick Thorne, Managing Director, Thorne Constructions. I thank the witnesses for their time. I would also like to thank the member for Giles. He presented to the committee concerning this important project in his electorate.

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.

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (11:25): I am very keen to speak on this great proposal for Whyalla. This is a project that has been a long time coming. I did put a proposal prior to the 2018 election to start on the development of a sporting hub in Whyalla. Of course, we lost that election, so it was good to see that come 2022 the $5 million that we were going to allocate was increased to $6 million, and now we are starting to see some real progress on the sporting hub.

Initially, I was pushing for the hub to go at the surplus Eyre High site in the centre of the city. At the moment the council are managing that site. They have the council chamber there, and the agreement with the state is on a peppercorn rental. They maintain the grounds around Eyre High and the building. Eyre High proved to have some challenges associated with it, and unfortunately the hockey club, which is a combined hockey club in Whyalla, which was looking to expand into that site, had to miss out this time. But I am very mindful of the needs of hockey, so I will look at how we can address that.

Having the sporting hub where it is, behind the new high school, makes a lot of sense. You already have two soccer pitches there and an Aussie Rules footy oval. That in itself is a great start. You also have within the school the sport hall. It is an original, state-accredited court suitable for netball, and we do have a number of netball outdoor courts adjacent to that. So there is that potential, at another stage, for netball to make this area its home as well, given it will have the advantage, which it does not have at the moment, of having a decently accredited internal court.

One of the anchor tenants for the new clubroom that is going to be built will be the Westlands United Soccer Club. Initially they were not part of the thinking around the sport hub, but the council wanted the club to move away from their current site so that Discovery could expand the caravan park and make it a destination caravan park.

At the time I did intervene. I did not think it appropriate on the basis of a song and a prayer to kick out a club that had been there for over 50 years. I managed to secure an agreement that there would be a no-disadvantage test for the Westlands United Soccer Club, and they are going to become the anchor tenant at the new hub.

It is also going to be a home for junior soccer. Junior soccer has been kicked from pillar to post. They have been here, they have been there, they have been everywhere. Now they are going to have a decent home with this new sport hub, with state-of-the art changing facilities. That will be a real plus for junior soccer in Whyalla.

There is potential also for female Aussie Rules to use the oval. There is also potential for cricket to use that oval as well. There has been some conflict between female football and cricket over the use of Bennett Oval and Memorial Oval in Whyalla, and this will help resolve that conflict over use. That is a another positive.

This is the first properly constituted sports hub in Whyalla. We have Jubilee Park, but I have always been of the view that that is a bit of a dog's breakfast. It is in the wrong location right on the periphery of town. Having the sports hub in the geographic centre of town, behind the high school, is going to be a real plus. It is going to enable one of the things that does not happen to the degree that it should in Whyalla, and that is resource sharing. For instance, the Westlands United Soccer Club—who have just moved out and have some transition arrangements in place—their previous location had a sloping soccer pitch, and they were paying a minimum of $15,000 a year just to water it.

The building was built back in the seventies under a federal employment program at the time. Some of the old-timers are very committed to that building because they used their own hands to help build it, but just about everyone in the club thinks there are going to be great opportunities in moving to the new site. I recognise the emotional commitment of some people, but this is a really positive step forward for the Westlands United Soccer Club.

It is a big step forward for Whyalla. The great thing about this particular site, over and above the resource sharing, is the need for the education department to commit to assisting, and the Whyalla City Council is going to assist, so the maintenance is going to be shared and that is going to reduce the cost to a club like the Westlands United Soccer Club.

The other big advantage of the site is that there is a lot of room around it, so there is real potential in the future for a staged expansion of sporting facilities in Whyalla. At the moment, we have five soccer clubs in Whyalla and all of them have their own pitches and their own clubrooms, and that does present some challenges. When it comes to Aussie Rules there is a sharing of ovals for the junior games, the B-grade and the A-grade with Bennett Oval and Memorial Oval, and then the clubs have their individual clubrooms. There are six footy clubs in Whyalla and I think everyone recognises that that is not sustainable and there will be some changes in the future.

This initiative is going to be a great one for Whyalla. It has been a long time coming. It has been a bit of a saga in a number of ways, so I am keen to see the physical work started. As part of the history of Whyalla, when you look at the soccer clubs, they were all built on the cheap in the sixties and the seventies. They are all ageing facilities, so it will be good to see something in Whyalla in the sporting arena that is going to be new and contemporary. My view is that this is just the start, and there is potential, on the basis of funding being available, to go to additional stages so that we can have something that we are incredibly proud of.

If you look at other regional communities, Port Augusta has an amazing facility, a combined sports hub, a very expensive combined sports hub. Port Pirie has it. Port Lincoln has had the Ravendale combined sports hub for years. Other significant regional communities also have sports hubs. Whyalla is coming late to this, despite all of the efforts over the years, and sometimes it is a case of it being difficult to herd cats, and you do not want to come in and be a bully, but we are now finding our way forward, and it is good that other sporting organisations are coming to me and saying, 'In future, how can we be part of this development?' It is going to be a big plus for Whyalla and I am very keen to see the sod turned and the building started.

Motion carried.