Yarra City Council endorses revised design for Brunswick Street Oval community and sporting facilities
20 December 2024
Project Background
In April 2022 an updated proposal to redevelop the sporting facilities and community spaces at the Brunswick Street Oval was presented for community consultation. These facilities service the Fitzroy Tennis Club, Edinburgh Cricket Club, Fitzroy Junior Football Club and Fitzroy Football Club. The feedback received was used to inform the proposed design that was endorsed by Council in May 2022.
It covered three distinct pieces of work, funded primarily by the Victorian Government, including:
- a new inclusive and accessible pavilion for the football and cricket clubs
- an upgraded and expanded tennis precinct including additional courts, relocated club house, new amenities and landscaping
- improvements to the heritage grandstand
Like many councils in Victoria, supply chain issues and the rising cost of materials and labour impacted project delivery. As a result, we were unable to commence construction of the new sports pavilion as planned in late 2023.
Council is committed to delivering this project and has been working with key stakeholders including sporting clubs and the Victorian Government to create a revised design for the facilities that can be delivered within the available budget, while still meeting the needs of the local community.
Council sought community feedback on the revised design before proceeding to amend the planning permit and commencing construction.
The Brunswick Street Oval sporting and community facilities project has funding support from the Victorian Government.
What did we ask?
We asked the community to tell us what they thought about the revised design, including any suggested changes which they thought could improve the proposed upgrades to the Brunswick Street Oval sporting and community facilities.
Who did we hear from?
What feedback did we receive?
A detailed report on the community engagement is available using this link. The report includes:
- engagement approach and method
- demographic information about respondents
- 39 key themes identified in the feedback from the community, and the officer responses to those
- an overall summary
The high-level summary of the 258 responses received is shown in the table below:
| Category | Description | Number | Percentage |
| Support | Responses that were supportive of the project, some having suggestions for improvement of the design | 150 | 58% |
| Partially support | Responses that were supportive of the project, but were not supportive of one or more elements of the design | 18 | 7% |
| Oppose | Responses that oppose the project for one or more reasons | 69 | 27% |
| Neutral | Responses that provided comments that neither supported nor opposed the project | 21 | 8% |
| TOTAL | 258 | 100% |
What comes next?
The consultation findings were presented to Council on Tuesday 17 December. During this meeting, the revised design and next steps for the project were endorsed.
In response to community feedback, Council’s resolution also included an amendment to publish a new landscape plan designed improve the interface between the sports pavilion and St Georges Road and not proceed with planting additional trees on "Hipster Hill".
With Council’s endorsement, the next steps and timing include:
- further design consultant engagement – early 2025
- planning approval amendment and heritage permits applied for – early 2025
- tree removals – early 2025
- tender for tennis improvements – early 2025
- early infrastructure works commence – mid 2025
- award contract for tennis improvements – early to mid-2025
- tender for design and construction of sport pavilion – mid-2025
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