Why plan for Beaton Park?

    Beaton Park is a sporting area of regional importance located in the suburb of Gwynneville, just two kilometres from Wollongong CBD. The site supports a variety of sporting codes, sporting clubs, as well as community and commercial uses.

    Within the precinct is the Beaton Park Leisure Centre (BPLC), Wollongong Tennis Club, Illawarra Basketball Stadium (the Snake Pit), Beaton Park Sportsground, the Kerryn McCann Athletics Centre and a children’s playground.

    Many of Beaton Park’s facilities are nearing the end of their operational life and, as the population in the area increases, there will be greater need to upgrade facilities to meet increased demand. The draft Plan will guide the extent, type and general location of future development and land use within the Precinct.

    What is in the draft Master Plan?

    The draft Beaton Park Regional Precinct Master Plan (The Plan) includes a general staging outline, with works proposed in these stages:

    Stage 1:  Aquatic Centre and Greening:

    Stage 2:  Leisure Centre upgrade, new entrance and health and wellbeing area

    Stage 3:  Multipurpose Stadium

    Stage 4:  Future Works

    Details on what is proposed as part of each phase of works is provided within the draft Plan.

    Landscaping, cycleway and shared path connections and car parking works are also proposed throughout the site as part of the overall Plan. It is expected that these works will be undertaken during the stages they relate to.


    What has been used to inform the draft Master Plan?

    The Plan has been prepared with feedback from key site stakeholders including the Wollongong Tennis Club, Illawarra Basketball Association, Athletics Wollongong, Football South Coast, Cricket Wollongong, Illawarra Hawks, Wollongong District Tennis Association, Wollongong Swim Club, Illawarra Badminton Association, Illawarra Table Tennis Association, Wollongong Little Athletics, NSW Tennis and Venues NSW. The key planning controls and strategic documents that apply to the Beaton Park site have been reviewed and their recommendations incorporated into the Plan. These documents include: ·  Beaton Park Needs Assessment 2015 ·  Play Wollongong 2014-2024 ·  The Future of Our Pools 2014 ·  Wollongong 2022 ·  Keiraville Gwynneville Community Planning Project ·  Keiraville/Gwynneville Access and Movement Strategy ·  City of Wollongong Bike Plan 2014-2018 ·  Illawarra-Shoalhaven Regional Plan

    Why is Council including a 25m and program/hydrotherapy pool as part of the aquatic centre expansion?

    Relevant Council policies including the Needs Assessment and Pools Strategy recommend that Council priorities for water space should include more warm water space for activities such as learn to swim and rehabilitation, rather than lap or competitive swimming at the site.

    With an abundance of water facilities within the Local Government Area (LGA), including swimming pools, rock pools and beaches, a 50 metre pool is not considered to be a priority at this site and is therefore not identified as part of the draft Master Plan. It has been identified, as part of the Pool Strategy, that Corrimal Swimming Pool will be the premier competitive 50 metre pool for the LGA. A master plan for the Corrimal site is currently being developed.


    Why are the football fields not proposed to be upgraded to synthetic?

    The dimensions of the available land between the existing shared path, the watercourse and Gipps Street is not big enough for two FIFA standard fields. Creating one synthetic field would mean the site couldn’t be used for cricket during the summer. Synthetic fields also need to be fenced which would reduce the amount of community green open space. For these reasons, synthetic football fields are not proposed as part of the draft Master Plan.

    How much car parking is proposed?

    The existing car parking areas currently contain 370 formal car parking spaces which are located within four separate car parking areas. There are several signage and circulation issues between the car parks, in particular the watercourse and causeway crossing which creates a physical separation of the areas to the north and south of Fairy Creek. The draft Master Plan proposes 454 formal car parking spaces; with opportunity to increase this to more than 600 spaces if the alternative car park off Throsby Drive is included.

    Along with additional parking, the draft Master Plan aims to encourage additional use of public and active transport alternatives to access the site, with upgrades to the existing bus stops and footpath and shared path connections proposed. The two proposed vehicle bridges over the watercourse are also expected to improve vehicle movements across the site and increase usage of car parking on the northern side of the creek.  

    What funding opportunities are there for the works?

    A range of funding opportunities will be explored for the different stages of works, including Federal & State grants, grants from National and State sporting organisations, input from local sporting stakeholders and joint venture opportunities.