Goya Dmytryshchak
Nearly $2.5 million has been allocated in this year’s Hobsons Bay council budget to reconstruct Williamstown Football Club’s home ground.
Works at Downer Oval, aka Williamstown Cricket Ground, were originally slated for late 2023 but will instead start this October.
As reported by Star Weekly in November, players had been injured and games were moved from Williamstown, prompting a petition signed by nearly 400 people calling on the council to bring planned works forward.
Last week’s council meeting resolved to allocate $2,460,000 in the 2020-21 draft capital works program for works at the ground, which also includes cricket net upgrades.
The council will work with the AFL and Williamstown Football Club to source funding contributions towards the project.
Williamstown Football Club chief executive Jason Reddick said the works would enable Hobsons Bay’s premier sporting oval to cater for state league football games as well as community football users, without the safety concerns of surface issues that had restricted its use in the past.
“We also see this as a positive step towards securing state and federal government support for our facility project, that will deliver additional changerooms, gymnasium and match-day facilities to cater for women’s football and multiple games at the venue featuring community teams,” he said.
Mr Reddick said the club would use Bayside College for the 2020-21 summer season.
“Our club has invested in excess of $130,000 over the past two years into Bayside College oval No. 2, to be able to accommodate our pre-season training requirements,” he said.
“This will now be available for our club to use for the first time from October 1, 2020, for a full pre-season program for both our VFL and VFLW programs.
“This is significant as it will be the first time that the Williamstown Football Club has access to a pre-season training venue in Hobsons Bay.”
He said the club acknowledged the disruption to Williamstown Cricket Club – which was supportive of the project – in relocating their home game fixtures this summer.
“No doubt the short-term pain will generate long-term gains for both our tenant clubs and the local community,” Mr Reddick said.
