Highfield Park pavilion redevelopment

About the project

We’re redeveloping the pavilion at Highfield Park in Camberwell to provide a high-quality facility for our community and sports clubs. 

We’re doing this because the current pavilion building is in poor condition and does not have female-friendly change rooms, toilets and showers.

We’re investing $6.67 million into this pavilion redevelopment. 

Project status

Demolition of the current pavilion is expected to start from early-to-mid February 2025. Construction of the new pavilion is expected to be completed by early-2026.

The sports clubs who use the pavilion require temporary change rooms, toilets and storage during the construction period. These are being installed in part of the car park off Wyclif Drive. The toilets are for use by sports clubs and spectators on training and match days.

During construction:

• the pavilion and public toilet will be closed
• all other parts of Highfield Park will remain open, including the rest of the car park, both ovals and the playground
• the nearest public toilets are located at Cooper Reserve (about 1km away) and Wattle Park (about 1.8km away).

As always, we aim to keep disruption to a minimum. Construction will happen on weekdays between the hours of 7:00 am and 5:00 pm. From time-to-time, works may occur on Saturdays between the hours of 9:00 am and 5:00 pm; however, this will be kept to a minimum.

Council meeting update December 2024

On Monday 9 December 2024 at the Services Delegated Committee (SDC) meeting, Council awarded the construction contract to Simbuilt for the Highfield Park pavilion redevelopment. The contract is based on the final design, which was shaped by feedback we received from our community during consultation. You can learn more about the feedback and view the final design on our Highfield Park pavilion redevelopment consultation page. 

At the meeting, officers were also asked to: 

• look at more opportunities to improve spectator viewing 
• inform the community about any changes to the previously approved design to improve spectator viewing. Officers are now looking into these opportunities.

We'll ensure that any updates to the design stay within the allocated project budget.

At this stage, we expect construction to start sometime between early to mid-2025.

Community consultation

From mid-February to mid-March 2024, we asked you for feedback on a draft design for the pavilion. Thank you to everyone who had their say. We received 46 responses, 72% of which were supportive of the draft design.

You can find out what our community told us, how their feedback shaped the final concept design, and view the final design on our Highfield Park pavilion redevelopment consultation page. 

Our final design

We’ve developed a new split-level building design which:

• is accessible
• has improved functionality
• creates a better connection between the north and south ovals. 

The lower level sits in line with the southern oval, and the upper level sits at road level with Wyclif Drive, facing the northern oval. The height of the split-level building is about 3.5m above car park level. This is an increase of about 2m above the current building height.

The new changerooms provide better facilities for women and girls to encourage more female participation in sport. 

These upgrades are in line with our Development and Funding of Community Pavilions – Sport and Recreation Policy and our Boroondara Community Plan. 

Key features of the new pavilion include:

• 4 unisex change rooms with toilets and showers
• 2 umpires’ rooms
• an accessible public toilet that can be accessed externally by the community
• an internal lift and stairwell
• a first aid room
• external building and path lighting to improve safety
• flexible social room/multi-purpose space with storage
• kitchen/kiosk with internal and external counter for serving food
• an extended sheltered viewing area at the front of the pavilion
• glazing on the west-facing windows which meets best practice standards to limit sun impact
• drinking fountains and dog water tap, bicycle hoops, bench seat and marked pedestrian pathway in front of the upper-level change rooms
• a ramp to improve external access to the pavilion
• accessible car parks
• solar PV system.

Tree works

We’ve worked closely with our architect to minimise any impact the new building would have on the surrounding trees, particularly the 4 significant trees within close proximity. 

However, to accommodate the larger pavilion and provide an accessible ramp down to the southern oval, 6 other trees deemed to be of low to moderate value need to be removed. 

We will offset these by planting new trees on-site. 

Timeline

More information

To receive updates about this project, visit our Highfield Park pavilion redevelopment consultation page and select 'Follow' at the top of the page.

For more information about construction, contact our Sport and Recreation team on (03) 9278 4444 or [email protected].