Hawthorndene Oval Community Facility August 2021 to July 2026

Contents

• Executive summary
• Timeline
• 2021
• 2022
• 12 September 2023
• 21 November 2023
• 19 March 2024
• 18 June 2024
• 9 July 2024
• 13 August 2024
• 15 October 2024
• 3 June 2025
• 17 March 2026
• 16 June 2026
• 30 June 2026
• Key findings
• Open questions

Executive summary

Hawthorndene Oval, a 2.73-hectare Council-owned sporting and recreation reserve on Watahuna Avenue, Hawthorndene, has been the subject of two intertwined City of Mitcham projects since at least 2021: a Community Land Management Plan governing balanced formal/informal use of the oval [26][25], and a long-running effort to build a new changeroom/community facility championed by the Coromandel Valley Ramblers Cricket Club [15][18]. Community engagement on the Community Land Management Plan, run jointly with democracyCo, earned Mitcham international recognition as an IOPD Best Practice finalist in 2022 [1][2][27]. Through 2024 the changeroom project faced a large cost blow-out, prompting a funding-shortfall extension, while Council separately consulted on and then approved a licence allowing the Blackwood Football Club limited use of the oval for junior training [13][18][14]. By mid-2026, construction of the facility was well underway, and the leasing/licensing and fees frameworks covering the site were formally reviewed and updated [22][23][24].

The record shows a consistent tension between formalised sporting use (via clubs seeking licences or facility funding) and community feedback favouring the oval's continued informal, passive-recreation character [13][15]. Multiple Council Resolutions Reports (July, August and October 2024) tracked this item as "in progress," reflecting successive extensions and consultations rather than a single resolution point [13][18][19].

Timeline

2021

Council adopted a Community Land Management Plan for Hawthorndene Oval on 31 August 2021, establishing objectives to maintain the oval as a mixed formal/informal sporting and recreation space, to provide safe and suitable community facilities, to optimise shared use of the oval sports field, cricket wicket, toilets, drinking fountains, shelter, seating and paths, and to recognise biodiversity assets [26][25]. At the same Special Full Council meeting on 31 August 2021, Council approved plans for a Community Facility/Changeroom with an accessible toilet [15].

Community consultation on possible amendments to the Community Land Management Plan for Hawthorndene Oval ran from 8 February to 27 March 2021, with feedback recorded in Attachments F and G and a letter from the Coromandel Valley Ramblers Cricket Club in Attachment I [6].

2022

On 14 October 2022, at the UCLG World Summit and Congress in South Korea, the City of Mitcham was named a finalist for the International Observatory of Participatory Democracy (IOPD) Best Practice in Citizen Participation award, in recognition of a community engagement approach for the Hawthorndene Oval facility developed jointly by democracyCo and Council's Property and Facilities team [1][2][27]. The finalist selection was made from 171 global submissions, with other government finalists including Amsterdam, Manchester, Florence, Salvador, Brussels, Barcelona and Bogota [1][2][27]. The record does not specify the scope, dates or contract value of democracyCo's engagement.

12 September 2023

Item 15.1, the Draft Annual Report 2022/23, referenced the Hawthorndene Oval engagement achievement as part of Council's annual reporting [1].

21 November 2023

Item 10.2, the Annual Report 2022/23, and Item 10.9, the List of Figures, again documented the Hawthorndene Oval community engagement and IOPD recognition within the finalised annual report [2][3].

19 March 2024

Under Item 10.4, Council considered background material and an Attachment A setting out architectural plans for the proposed changeroom/community facility, including a ground-floor layout with two 27 m² change rooms, a kitchenette, equipment store, bin store, umpire facilities, and accessible public toilets [4][5][6]. The background material noted "significant community feedback both prior to and during community consultation on the proposed new Community/Changeroom Facility," indicating the community did not support additional organised sport use of the oval [7]. A recommendation was put to Council under Item 10.4 [7]. Separately, under Item 7.2, Mr Matt Smith of the Coromandel Valley Ramblers Cricket Club was granted permission to address Council about the facility design [8].

18 June 2024

Item 5.2, "Hawthorndene Oval Changeroom / Community Facility Next Steps," was considered, including an Adjourned Motion with Attachment B detailing further design specifications (concrete flooring, fire-shuttered windows, aluminium battens, painted timber screens, corrugated metal roofing) [9][10], background material [11], and a discussion of options for Council's consideration regarding a possible licence to the Blackwood Football Club [12]. The options paper set out four alternatives: (1) statutory consultation on a licence offering; (2) a short-term licence for Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:00pm–5:30pm, 19 June to 31 August 2024; (3) a short-term licence on days/times/hours chosen by Council; or (4) no licence [12]. The paper noted that granting a licence to Blackwood Football Club might improve prospects of the changeroom project receiving additional funding, and that the club's proposed use was not expected to render the oval surface unsafe or unusable [12].

Council's resolution on Item 5.2, as recorded in subsequent Council Resolutions Reports, noted that the endorsed Community Land Management Plan envisages licences supporting community sport but that there had been community feedback against increasing formal sport on the oval, and that the Blackwood Football Club lacked adequate space for all of its junior girls' teams [13]. Council provided delegation to the Chief Executive Officer to endorse a statutory consultation plan, including at minimum an online and hard-copy survey accessible for 28 days with onsite posters [13]. It further resolved that any eventual licence to the club would be exclusive to junior teams, April to September, for six hours a week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 4pm–6pm) [13], and noted that the Coromandel Valley Ramblers Cricket Club had been told further funding for the Community/Changeroom Facility was unlikely without additional club use of the site, and that the time needed for consultation and a return report could create grant-application challenges [13][19].

The same 18 June 2024 resolution on Item 5.2 also addressed the changeroom facility's finances: Council noted that the Coromandel Valley Ramblers Cricket Club had been advised additional funding was unlikely without additional organised sport at the site; that $87,264 of the original budget had already been spent on designs, quantity surveyor costings and native vegetation approval, leaving $395,527 available; and that recent estimates put the total project cost at $1,887,500, creating a shortfall of $990,500 [18][28]. Council resolved to extend time until 31 December 2024 to allow the club to seek external funding to cover the shortfall, noting written confirmation of a State Government grant extension to the same date [18][28]. Council further noted that building the facility at $1,887,500 would produce an effective rate rise of 0.03% (versus 0.12% previously approved) and require an additional $33,786 in ongoing operating costs (versus $64,624 previously approved) [18]. It resolved that if the shortfall was not covered by 31 December 2024, a further report would be brought outlining options and costings for a scaled-back accessible public toilet, pathway and carpark at Hawthorndene Oval, noting the existing toilets were in very poor condition and due for replacement [18][28].

9 July 2024

The Council Resolutions Report for July 2024 (Item 14.4), covering outstanding items up to 18 June 2024, listed the Hawthorndene Oval Changeroom/Community Facility Next Steps item (5.2) as "in progress," under managers Craig Harrison and officer Travis Beard, repeating the consultation-plan and licence-parameter resolution points [13].

13 August 2024

Minutes recorded a decision, under Item 1, that Council accepts funding [14]; the meeting also dealt with Item 10.4, "Outcome of consultation for the proposed use of Hawthorndene Oval by Blackwood Football Club" [15][16][17]. The consultation report and survey (Q5: "To what extent do you support the granting of the above 5-year licence for Blackwood Football Club's use of Hawthorndene Oval?") captured strong informal-user opposition, citing the oval as a "final bastion" of unstructured community space, concerns about drainage and boggy conditions in wet weather, loss of amenity for dog-walking and family recreation, balls entering the road, and suggestions the club use its existing ovals (Hewett Reserve, Blackwood Hill Oval) or Belair National Park instead [15]. Council's administration responded that the proposed use was not anticipated to render the surface unsafe or unusable, that Hewett Reserve and Blackwood Hill Oval currently exceeded recommended capacity for organised sport, that Blackwood Football Club's licence at Hewett Reserve could not be extended, and that Belair National Park is managed by SA National Parks and Wildlife Service, not Council, so any use there would require the club to approach that department directly [15].

Per the minutes, a motion moved by Cr McCarthy on this item was carried unanimously, with no division recorded [14]. The resolution noted community feedback on the proposed 5-year licence; endorsed issuing a 5-year licence to Blackwood Football Club for junior football training (April–September, Tuesday to Thursday, 4pm–6pm); delegated authority to the Chief Executive Officer to sign the licence and make minor changes as necessary; and directed administration to review Hawthorndene Oval usage following consultation on the 2024/25 Apex Park/Hawthorndene Oval Master Plan operating project [14].

The Council Resolutions Report for August 2024 (Item 14.7), covering outstanding items up to 16 July 2024, again listed Item 5.2 as "in progress," restating the $87,264 already spent, the $1,887,500 revised total cost, the $990,500 shortfall, the 31 December 2024 funding-extension deadline, the projected rate and operating-cost impacts, and the fallback plan for a scaled-back toilet/pathway/carpark option if funding was not secured [18].

15 October 2024

The Council Resolutions Report for October 2024 (Item 12.7), covering outstanding items up to 17 September 2024, continued to track Item 5.2 as "in progress" under the same managers and officer, repeating the licence parameters and the funding-shortfall extension terms [19].

3 June 2025

Under Item 5.1, "Other Feedback – Free Text responses from Survey, Emails, Letters," community feedback included a request for "an update on the Management Plan for Hawthorndene Oval" [20].

17 March 2026

The City of Mitcham Quarters 1 and 2 Performance Report 2025/26 (Item 12.2) recorded the Hawthorndene Oval Changerooms Facility as 20% complete [21].

16 June 2026

The City of Mitcham Quarter 3 Performance Report 2025/26 (Item 13.1) recorded the Hawthorndene Oval Changerooms Facility as 40% complete, with construction underway, noting delays due to extreme heat days and the site's location within a bushfire-prone area, and an estimated practical completion in June 2026 [22].

30 June 2026

Council reviewed its Leasing and Licensing of Council's Sports Facilities policy (Item 5.2), seeking endorsement of the updated policy [23]. In conjunction with a separate Policy Review of the Election Signs Policy (Item 5.3) [24], Council endorsed fees and charges for the Hawthorndene Community Changeroom Facility for inclusion in the 2026/2027 Fees and Charges Register: $15.00 per hour for community, local resident, not-for-profit and government use; $20.00 per hour for non-resident/commercial business use; and a $280.97 per year facility licence fee for community sporting clubs, with the facility available for hire 7am–10pm Monday to Saturday and 8am–8pm Sunday and public holidays outside any lease or licence arrangement [23][24].

Key findings

• Hawthorndene Oval's governing Community Land Management Plan, adopted 31 August 2021, envisages a mix of formal sporting and informal recreational use, but community feedback has consistently opposed expanding formal/organised sport on the oval [26][25][13].
• A new changeroom/community facility, driven primarily by the Coromandel Valley Ramblers Cricket Club, saw its estimated cost rise from an original $482,791 budget to $1,887,500 by June 2024, producing a $990,500 shortfall that Council addressed by granting the club an extension to 31 December 2024 to seek external funding [18][28].
• Council separately consulted on, and on 13 August 2024 unanimously approved, a 5-year licence permitting Blackwood Football Club junior teams to use Hawthorndene Oval for training six hours a week (Tuesday–Thursday, 4pm–6pm, April–September), despite strong community opposition raised in the consultation survey and free-text feedback [14][15][13].
• Administration's technical assessments consistently held that the proposed Blackwood Football Club use would not render the oval unsafe or unusable, and that alternative venues (Hewett Reserve, Blackwood Hill Oval, Belair National Park) were not viable substitutes due to capacity constraints or lack of Council jurisdiction [15].
• The record contains no minuted decision on the fallback "public toilet, pathway and carpark" option that was to be brought to Council if the 31 December 2024 funding deadline was missed; instead, quarterly performance reports for 2025/26 show the full changeroom facility proceeding, reaching 20% completion by March 2026 and 40% by June 2026 [21][22].
• By 30 June 2026, Council had formalised fees, charges and licensing policy settings for the completed/near-complete Hawthorndene Community Changeroom Facility as part of a broader Leasing and Licensing of Council's Sports Facilities policy review [23][24].
• Mitcham's community engagement process for the Hawthorndene Oval facility, run jointly with democracyCo, was recognised as an IOPD Best Practice in Citizen Participation finalist in October 2022, among 171 global submissions [1][2][27].

Open questions

• The record does not show whether the $990,500 funding shortfall was fully resolved by 31 December 2024, nor does it contain a minuted Council decision confirming that the full facility (rather than the scaled-back toilet/pathway/carpark option) was formally approved to proceed [18][28][21][22].
• The scope, timeline and cost of democracyCo's engagement contract for Hawthorndene Oval community consultation are not specified anywhere in the indexed record [1][2][27].
• The detailed content of the 2021 community consultation feedback (Attachments F, G and I, referenced in [6]) is not reproduced in the available material.
• No formal division (recorded individual councillor vote) on any Hawthorndene Oval decision appears in the record; all resolutions identified were either unanimous or show no division [14].
• It is unclear from the record which specific Council meeting minutes (as opposed to Council Resolutions Reports, which are supporting documents) formally carried the full text of the 18 June 2024 Item 5.2 resolution, since the resolution's contents appear split across multiple later resolutions-tracking reports [13][18][19][28].
• The record does not confirm the exact final completion date of the Hawthorndene Oval Changeroom Facility beyond the June 2026 estimate noted in the Quarter 3 2025/26 performance report [22].