Eastlake Football Club (the Eastlake Demons) turns 100 this year, and is a step closer to returning first-grade football to its spiritual home at Kingston Oval.
The first sod was turned today on a $1.1 million redevelopment of the historic ground, built in 1922 and one of the oldest sporting ovals in the ACT.
The works will deliver a new irrigation system, new turf, and upgraded floodlighting. The ACT Government is contributing $740,806 and the AFL NSW/ACT $400,000.
They form the first stage of Eastlake’s five-year masterplan to revitalise the Oval. Work is expected to be completed in March or April.
Eastlake plays its first-grade home games at EPC Solar Park in Phillip, although its junior and women’s teams continue to use Kingston Oval.
Aaron Bruce, Eastlake’s chief executive, said the redevelopment had been 25 years in the making.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said.
Mr Bruce said the investment would bring the playing surface up to a standard suitable for first-grade football or senior football in the ACT.
A second stage of the masterplan would upgrade off-field facilities, including changerooms, seating, and covered spectator areas, but no funding or delivery date has yet been confirmed. Although Eastlake was one of the foundational clubs in women’s football in the ACT, Mr Bruce said the existing facilities were increasingly inadequate for women’s football.
“They’ve been put in environments that are less than ideal, whether it’s shared change rooms because the facilities don’t have women-friendly or gender-specific infrastructure in place,” Mr Bruce said.
Residents use the oval to walk dogs and play sport.
“Almost more than any other group that uses this facility, it is the community as opposed to the football club,” Mr Bruce said.
Mr Bruce said the pressure on Kingston Oval would only increase as thousands of new homes were built around Eastlake and Hume Circle.
“There are no new ovals getting built towards the Eastlake master-planned area and the Hume Circle master-planned areas,” Mr Bruce said.
“There’s some green space, but that’s not an oval. It’s not where people run their dogs, come and kick the balls with their kids… Thousands of dwellings are going to be sitting basically within a block or two of this site, and so that usage is only going to go up.”
AFL NSW/ACT manager Steve Mahar described Kingston Oval as the organisation’s number one facility priority. He said returning Eastlake’s first-grade side to Kingston would also free EPC Solar Park for a potential eighth team in the AFL Canberra first-grade competition.
“We’d love to see them back here because this is their spiritual home,” Mr Mahar said.
Independent MLA Thomas Emerson had called on the ACT Government last year to invest in the masterplan. He said the upgrade was “a positive step being taken toward bringing first-grade footy back to Kingston Oval”.
“Such incredible history here – it’s incumbent on all of us to make sure that’s respected and invested in, so that this asset can be used currently and for generations to come,” Mr Emerson said.
Deputy Chief Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the government’s investment would preserve the ground for future use.
“Canberrans participate in sport at a higher level than any other city community across Australia. That’s because we have these fantastic clubs and facilities like Kingston Oval. We’ve always had them, and we need to ensure that they are maintained, preserved, and improved into the future.”
