News / Sport
Coburg sports precinct vision riles athletics clubs
Detractors say plans to remove synthetic track would jeopardise future of local athletics
Mark Phillips
ON a windy Monday night in Coburg North, with the threat of a thunderstorm in the air, coach David Woods is taking his squad of teenage athletes through their paces on the synthetic Harold Stevens Athletics Track.
Rain, hail or shine, Woods’ junior development squad will meet throughout the year for intensive training and who knows, a future state or national champion – perhaps even an Olympian – could be among them.
Woods watches intently as the mixed gender sprint squad complete a series of drills for an hour as the wind whips through the trees that surround the track before calling it a night.
The 54-year-old Harold Stevens track is a Mecca for athletes of all ages from Melbourne’s inner north and northern suburbs. It is home to the Coburg Harriers, formed in 1896 and counting Olympians Raelene Boyle and Herb Elliott among its past members. It also the base for Coburg Little Athletics, and is used by schools from across the City of Merri-bek.
But a Merri-bek Council masterplan which proposes removing the synthetic track and infrastructure for field events, putting in their place a grass facility that would be shared with football and cricket, would jeopardise the future of athletics in the region, say its detractors.
Ever since the plans were made public in April, opposition has been growing with a showdown anticipated at the council meeting in July.
Merri-bek Mayor Helen Davidson says the masterplan is necessary to accommodate diverse users of the site, which is near the Merri Creek.
But both the junior and adult athletics clubs say they have been blindsided by the masterplan which shapes a vision for the sports precinct over the next 25 years.
Backed by Pascoe Vale MP Anthony Cianflone, they are calling for the council to scrap the plans and go back to the drawing board.
Woods, a Brunswick resident who is president of Coburg Harriers and of the management committee for the athletics centre as well as head coach of the Coburg Little Athletics elite junior development squad, said a grass track would be a death knell for local athletics.
“[It would be] the end of the club and the end of athletics in Merri-bek,” he said.
“There’s no other track in Merri-bek, so I don’t know why the consultants came up with that. They asked us but then completely ignored what we see as a way of securing a future for a healthy community, using track and field activities as a way of doing that.” 
The design proposes merging the athletics track with the neighbouring Jackson Reserve football and cricket oval to create “multi-use sporting fields”.
The synthetic running track would be replaced with grass, and dedicated facilities for throwing and jumping events, including discus, javelin, hammer throw, long jump and pole vault would be removed to allow ball sports to be played on the oval all year round.
The masterplan, which was funded by a $2 million commonwealth government grant, was approved for public comment at the council’s April meeting and is due to return for further debate next month.
A report to the April council meeting said the consultants employed by the council had spoken to 22 stakeholders and a further six sporting clubs took part in workshop sessions about the masterplan.
Davidson said the plans would upgrade the current athletics track “to a size that meets standard competition dimensions” while providing space for throwing and jumping events.
“The draft masterplan proposes a longer-term vision as well as short-term actions for three distinct zones across the study area,” she said.
“The long-term vision attempts to solve the key challenges of space for this zone as well as improve overall amenity and increase community use.”
Although the redevelopment would be more than two decades into the future, both athletics clubs want to stop the plans from progressing any further now.
Between 10,000 and 15,000 people use the facilities at the Harold Stevens Athletics Track, including most schools in Merri-bek.
The centre opened in 1971 and its first polyurethane track was laid in 1998.
The two athletics clubs that use the track draw members from as far as Brunswick in the south and Wallan in the north.
Coburg Little Athletics club has about 300 junior members who compete during spring and summer and an elite junior development squad of up to 30 children who train throughout the year.
Its president Kirsty Johns, whose 14 and 10-year-old sons are members of the club, said a grass track would be a major step backwards that would make it difficult to attract and retain members.
“I can’t see, as it stands, how we can run little athletics in the way that we run it now,” she said.
“It would become a much smaller club. I think the centre would remain, but the issue is it would be a smaller club, it’s not competitive … [so] why would they come to us? Why wouldn’t they go to Essendon, Collingwood, Diamond Valley, Craigieburn?
“So we would just, I think, fade away, to be honest.” 
Johns said a grass track would be difficult to maintain to a safe level for competitive athletics, particularly when it was also used for other sports.
“We accept that the track as it stands is not perfect, and obviously there’s been a lot of push to improve that.
“The grass track solution is really challenging for us because we can’t see how it will work with how little aths and Harriers operate with training through the winter, pretty much every night … and so that would overlap with the use of the footy oval.
“And a grass track is really challenging to work with, to keep it smooth enough and to keep it flat, particularly when it’s also a footy oval, is going to be really challenging. There’s more risk of injuries for kids with disabilities and able-bodied kids, and also they’re just really high maintenance.
“You watch the footy ovals, there’s people painting them every week because the grass is cut every week. It’s not just a set and forget at the start of the season.”
Woods said there had been no provision made for field events in the masterplan and a grass track would be unsuitable for the level of athletics the club seeks to compete at.
“Pole vault, high jump, long jump, discus throwing, hammer throwing, etc, would be completely eradicated and athletics kind of condemned to sharing a rough grass track.
“And I say rough because if you’ve got an open grass area to the public and shared with sports that use studs and physical activities of that nature, it would be torn to pieces and unsuitable for running on.”
Coburg Harriers is most famous as the club that produced 1972 Olympics 100 m and 200 m silver medalist Raelene Boyle. Its alumni also include the 1960 Olympics 1500 m gold medalist Herb Elliott, while 1968 Olympics 200 m silver medalist Peter Norman began running with the club before moving elsewhere.
The club’s current crop of promising juniors include Sonali Reniguntala, who won the gold medal for under-15 discus at the Australian Little Athletics Championships in Perth earlier this year, and Adrian Wilson, who ran 11.115 seconds in the under-18 boys 100 m final at the Stawell Gift in April.
Sonali’s mother, Alice Maddineni, said if the masterplan was adopted, Sonali would have no choice but to leave the club.
Sonali, who lives in Reservoir began at Coburg Little Athletics under-fives and her 11-year-old, Sri, is also a member of the club.
“We came here and fell in love with the place,” her mother said.
“My daughter took a break one year but since then there’s been no turning back. She has had opportunities from different clubs but she says ‘no, Mum, I want stay with my friends here’.
“The coaching and facilities are excellent, but it’s also very diverse and inclusive.” 
The track falls within the electorate of Pascoe Vale MP Anthony Cianflone, who has spoken in Parliament about the threat the masterplan poses to local athletics.
Cianflone criticised the consultation process for the masterplan, which he said failed to engage with both athletics clubs.
“With over 15,000 people coming through the precinct every year, including many school carnivals, the track continues to support many health and wellbeing outcomes, ”Cianflone said in Parliament.
“However, this rich history is now under threat and under risk … Essentially the plan has been received like a shot-put through the face, a discus to the back of the head and a javelin through the heart by the local community.”
Cianflone has organised an online petition opposing the plan which currently has almost 1600 signatures.
Davidson said the plans were not set in stone and community feedback would be considered when preparing a final draft for the July council meeting.
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