Preston City Oval upgrades

As part of our ongoing commitment to community health and wellbeing, we are planning for upgrades to Preston City Oval’s changeroom facilities and field lighting to accommodate growing AFL and cricket participation.

Why is Council upgrading the field lighting and changerooms?

Currently, the change facilities do not meet gender-inclusive or accessibility standards, which limits participation by women and girls. In addition, the oval’s lighting levels are considered unsafe for sport training or matches significantly reducing ground usage capability. The pavilion and field lighting were both rated as a priority for upgrade in Council’s Outdoor Sport Infrastructure Framework (2020).

What is being delivered as part of this project?

Following consultation and advice from tenant sporting clubs and state sporting bodies, the project will deliver:

• Construction of 4 lighting poles with footings, energy efficient LED light fittings and related electrical works to deliver 300-lux level lighting to the oval.
• Refurbishment of pavilion changerooms to provide gender-inclusive and accessible amenities, including upgraded showers, toilets and changing spaces.

What community and user benefits does these upgrades offer?

Council will deliver a renovation of the pavilion with gender-inclusive changerooms, a publicly accessible toilet and upgraded ground lighting to meet current sporting requirements and community needs. Benefitting tenant sporting clubs include Darebin Falcons Women’s Sports Club, Northern Knights Football Club, and Preston Cricket Club.

This will ensure more community members from all ages, genders and backgrounds have access to facilities that enable healthy, social and active lifestyles.

The new LED lighting system will comply with Australian Standards and State Sporting Association requirements, ensuring safe, high-quality sport participation. The design ensures the field lighting is targeted to the sports ground, with minimal light spill and glare outside the oval perimeter (anticipated to be less than 5 lux – street lighting is 10–15 lux).  

Once completed, the upgraded lighting is expected to allow 8 hours of lit ground usage per week under lights during the winter season. Some weekend night matches may be scheduled throughout the year, but majority of usage would be midweek sports training use concluding by approximately 9pm. 

The gender-inclusive and accessible changeroom upgrades will particularly benefit AFL and cricket club users, ensuring more community members of all ages, genders and backgrounds have access to quality facilities that support healthy, social, and active lifestyles.

How will the project be funded?

Council’s adopted Annual Budget and Financial Outlook 2025-26 to 2028-29 has been developed in anticipation of budget being allocated to this project.

The project is supported by and will be delivered in partnership with the Federal Government and AFL – the peak body for Australian Football.

In early-2025, Council received a Federal Government grant commitment of $700,000 towards these two project initiatives. In November 2025, the AFL pledged $200,000 towards the project with a focus on improving the field lighting to meeting state-level requirements.

What are the current project timelines, and when will this pavilion be constructed?

Who was involved in the consultation process?

We completed targeted consultation with key user groups and stakeholders throughout the design process. They include:

• tenant sporting clubs
• Australian Football League (AFL)
• Cricket Victoria
• Federal Government
• external services authorities
• internal Council departments.

How will these upgrades impact the ground and sporting club users?

Some disruption and inconvenience is expected for neighbouring residents and ground users during the works period. There will be no pavilion or car park access during the construction period.

More information regarding construction noise can be found on the the Neighbouring construction webpage.  

Pedestrian access will be maintained to Preston City Oval, with the ground to remain open for recreational use when organised sporting activity is not allocated.

Public toilet facilities will remain open as usual, not affected by this project.

Who can I speak to with further enquiries?

If you have further questions or feedback regarding this project, please contact the Leisure Services Team on (03) 8470 8305 or email us at sport@darebin.vic.gov.au.