Consultation lands Warren Park over the try-line 

Finding a new home for Northern Territory Rugby League in Darwin has been a 5 year journey across 2 possible locations and 2 changes of government. That’s not to mention the extensive and at times feisty community debate about what location was best for the stakeholders involved. Finally though it appears Warren Park will be the new home for Northern Territory Rugby League, the site being first touted as the preferred location in 2012. Today’s NT news reports the NT Government will proceed with the new $25M stadium facility at Warren Park which will also be the administrative home of Northern Territory Rugby League.

The stadium development has a colourful past and Martin Kelly, Partner at Finlaysons (Darwin), has been witness to the whole story. 

The South Darwin Sporting League are the owners of the crown lease interest at Warren Park and Kelly sits as Chairman of the SDSL. Kelly firmly believes the stadium development at Warren Park is the way forward for all stakeholders. “For the rugby league traditionalists, it was disappointing that the development didn’t proceed at Richardson Park. However, the Ludmilla community were loud and clear on calling out the CLP for their lack of community consultation in redeveloping the Richardson Park site in 2015. There was also a majority voice calling for the stadium development to be staged at Warren Park.”

Kelly also said that Marrara, as Darwin’s designated sporting precinct, was a much better site from a planning perspective. “Warren Park has been underutilised for well over a decade. The 2 affiliate members at Warren Park have reign over an area comprising more than 7 hectares. With a community purpose zoning, it wasn’t making sense to have so much available land to host only a rugby league club and rugby union club. The SDSL and the 2 affiliate clubs were not in a position to develop the area without a partnering proposition”.

Kelly is confident the NT Government will make traffic flows in the Marrara area work more fluid as part of the stadium construction. “I have been very impressed with the current government’s approach to consultation. With this significant piece of infrastructure, the Marrara area will be even more equipped for hosting major sporting events and carnivals.”      

Submissions on the stadium development have now closed. Land clearing for construction on the stadium is expected to commence December. The $25M expenditure is the largest seen for a Territory sporting project since the construction of TIO stadium.  The key features of the proposed design include:

• three full sized fields one to national standard
• 10 capacity grandstand facilities
• NRL compliant change room facilities
• corporate facilities
• food facilities
• over 600 car parks
• flexibility to host other events