City of Newcastle’s $500,000 sand grooving upgrade for 10 local sports fields

newy.com.au – Ten sporting fields across Newcastle will receive upgraded drainage ahead of next winter under a $500,000 sand grooving program being rolled out by City of Newcastle.

The council says the works are aimed at keeping more games on after one of Newcastle’s wettest winters on record and will build on more than $3.35 million invested in drainage and irrigation improvements during the past five years.

Work began this month on the sand grooving program, which City of Newcastle describes as a cost-effective way to improve drainage and enhance playing surfaces without the need for major ground reconstruction.

Chair of the Sports Infrastructure Working Party, Councillor Peta Winney-Baartz, said the scale of the city’s sporting network meant ongoing investment was essential.

“We manage more than 150 sports fields and are committed to delivering high quality sporting facilities to meet the needs of our growing and active community,” Cr Winney-Baartz said.

“Unfortunately, what we can’t control is the horrible weather that has regularly hit the east coast of Australia the past few years,” she said. “Newcastle experienced one of its wettest winters on record this year, with May receiving 300mm of rain which was three times the normal average, and August 290mm, which is more than triple what is usually the driest month of the year.

“The levels of rainfall forced the repeated postponement and cancellation of fixtures across a range of sporting codes.”

The sand grooving program is being progressively rolled out at Wallsend Oval No.2, Mayfield Park, Gibbs Brothers Oval, Learmonth Oval No.2, Townson Oval, Darling Street Oval, Nesbitt Park, Lugar Park, Ford Oval and Harry Edwards Oval.

The technique involves cutting narrow trenches into the turf and backfilling them with washed sand, which loosens the soil and creates direct pathways for water to drain into existing sub-surface systems, reducing surface ponding and helping grounds recover more quickly after rain.

Cr Winney-Baartz said the latest round of works was part of a broader push to make local facilities more resilient to both extremes of weather.

“We continue to invest in projects to lessen the impact of both incredibly wet and overly dry weather on our sporting community and currently have 24 grounds with drainage as well as 25 irrigated grounds,” she said. “Importantly we’ve invested in the maintenance of existing drainage infrastructure to ensure we get the maximum use out of our upgraded grounds.”

City of Newcastle will also begin preparing drainage and irrigation designs for eight sports fields this financial year, including Adamstown Park and Elermore Vale Reserve.

Over the past five years, drainage improvements have been delivered at venues across the city including National Park No.1, No.5 and No.6, Townson Oval at Merewether, Arthur Edden Oval at New Lambton, Myers Park at Adamstown and Johnson Park at Lambton.

At Smith Park in Hamilton North, the council has installed new stormwater pits, subsoil drainage lines and irrigation enhancements, while drainage designs have been completed for Harker Oval at New Lambton, Fletcher’s Kurraka Oval, Novocastrian Park at New Lambton and Darling Street Oval at Hamilton South.

Drainage upgrades have also been incorporated into the recently adopted masterplans for Waratah Park and Adamstown Park, guiding future works at those sites.

Additional sportsgrounds identified for drainage upgrades are expected to be included in the public exhibition of City of Newcastle’s 2026/27 budget, with the council stating it will continue to work with local sporting organisations to prioritise projects and partner with the NSW and Federal governments to secure grant funding.