The project to build a new basketball stadium on Wallarah and Blackley Ovals has now been listed on the NSW government’s Major Projects Planning Portal. I had a quick skim through the available documents, and two things stuck out.
Firstly, the Scoping Report has a section on Community Engagement, that has a list of stakeholders that Newcastle Basketball has “undertaken consultation with to inform the project planning.” Conspicuously missing from this list are the two groups that will be most negatively impacted by the project.
- The sporting groups who currently use the ovals.
- The local residents who will have to suffer the traffic and parking chaos the development will cause.
I am at a loss to decide whether these omissions are due to incompetence, error, conflict avoidance, or deliberate action to keep the community in the dark.
The second item that caught my eye, was in the “Heritage NSW Advice on SEARs” document, which states that “the site does not contain any known historical archeological relics.” During World War 2, the site of Wallarah Oval contained four gun emplacements, as shown in the 1944 aerial photograph below.
As recently as 2014, aerial photographs show parch marks that hint that some remnant of these gun emplacements may still be under the surface. The extent and significance of these remains is uncertain.
Hi Lachlan,
The four gun emplacements, WWII anti-aircraft guns is that we’re thinking here?
Cheers
Shannon
Yes, WW2 anti-aircraft guns. However I believe some of these gun emplacements were not actual guns, but decoy guns to deceive the Japanese as to the strength of Newcastle’s defences. I have not been able to locate any firm information on which gun emplacements were real vs decoy. Note that in the Lambton area there were also emplacements in Lambton Park, and in Johnson Park.
Thank’s Lachlan, I didn’t realise, I just thought we had Fort Scratchley and that was it.
Cheers
Shannon