SPORTENG

05/06/2026

The St George Illawarra Dragons Community and High Performance Centre is officially open 🎉

It's a genuine milestone for the Illawarra: a $65 million home in Wollongong bringing elite training, community programs and new pathways for women and girls together under one roof. And we're proud that the NRL fields at the heart of it carry our work.

SPORTENG delivered Field of Play design services across the full journey, from concepts, tender and construction documentation, technical specifications, witness and hold point inspections and final turf handover testing.

A project like this is only ever a team effort, so congratulations to the St George Illawarra Dragons, the University of Wollongong, and everyone across the partner and government teams who brought it to life.

It's a facility the whole region can be proud of.

Here's to the next generation of Dragons, NRL and NRLW alike, who'll train and play on these fields for years to come!

Read the full announcement: https://www.pm.gov.au/media/new-world-class-sports-centre-opens-its-doors-illawarra

02/06/2026

$50M facility. 5 pitches. 5 national teams. 1 deadline that couldn't move.
Here's how we delivered the Sam Kerr Football Centre!

Back in 2023, we were engaged by the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries to deliver feasibility, tender documentation, and construction phase services for two hybrid international standard pitches and three 5-a-side synthetic pitches at what is now called the Sam Kerr Football Centre in Perth.

During early planning, tested and approved the existing site-won material for reuse in the growing medium. The existing sands were stockpiled, sieved, placed and amended all onsite, reducing transport and material costs!

Then came a construction programming challenge.

Delays pushed turf establishment into winter, which meant the warm-season couch grass originally specified would have struggled to reach establishment and become dormant. Our agronomy team worked with the contractor to specify and oversee a ryegrass oversow application, which meant the turf met the establishment requirements in time for international teams to train on it ahead of the Women's World Cup.

The centre went on to host training squads from Denmark, Canada, Panama, Haiti, and Morocco. It's now one of WA's premier football facilities, supporting everything from grassroots programs to high-performance pathways.

This is what it looks like when Field of Play expertise is in the room from day one 💪

Watch the project video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y7jyi3krcA

Welcome to the Sam Kerr Football Centre, Perth's premier soccer facility! Discover how SPORTENG transformed Queen's Park into a world-class hub with elite in...

29/05/2026

If you're attending the PLA WA Region Conference on 11 June, don't miss this one!

Jarrod Hill and Lucas Skelton will be presenting on a topic that sits at the heart of every council and facility manager's reality: how maintenance directly impacts how much a facility can actually be used, what happens when budgets or resources fall short, and whether usage can realistically be scaled to the maintenance capacity available.

It's a conversation the industry needs to have more openly. Jarrod and Lucas between them bring decades of on the ground and strategic experience across sports turf and Field of Play planning, so expect practical insights, not just theory.

Come find us at our stand too! We'd love to chat 👋

Register here: https://parksleisure.com.au/event/2026-plawa-region-symposium-awards-of-excellence/

📍 Novotel Langley, Perth | 11 June

Get Ready for a day to of inspiration and celebration as we reconnect and collaborate at the 2026 PLA WA Region Symposium and Awards of Excellence.

28/05/2026

At the Kingsway Regional Sporting Complex in Madeley, we worked with the City of Wanneroo to design and document 27 acrylic asphalt netball courts and 3 half courts, complete with upgraded lighting for evening play.

The design posed unique challenges, including 3 fixed edges, existing trees on the north and east sides, and a building to the south, restricting the layout to sit within the existing court footprint.

In conjunction with the contractor and council, we developed a solution to reuse the existing crushed rock and asphalt, saving council significant costs in the import and export of materials.

SPORTENG prepared full design documentation, including drawings, specifications, an Opinion of Probable Cost, tender drawings, and a Bill of Quantities, while also providing construction phase services including fortnightly site inspections.

The result is a facility built to perform for athletes at every level, and to serve the Wanneroo community for years to come. This is the kind of project that shows what rigorous, locally grounded Field of Play design looks like in practice — and one of several we're proud to have delivered right here in WA.

Read the full case study: https://www.sporteng.com.au/designing-27-netball-courts-at-kingsway-regional-sporting-complex

27/05/2026

How do you deliver a high-performance sports facility on a council or school budget? That's the question we're tackling in our upcoming webinar with PLA.

Joining forces with PLA, SPORTENG is hosting a free webinar on 17 June 2026 at 2pm, led by three of our most experienced practitioners:
👉 Mardi Cuthbert (QLD Team Lead)
👉 Mat Poultney (QLD Field of Play Consultant)
👉 Lucas Skelton (Field of Play Team Lead).

The session covers the topics that come up on almost every community project: budgets, shared-use design, surface selection, seasonal considerations, and how shifting elite-level standards are starting to flow through to community facilities.

If you're a council officer, school facilities manager, or anyone involved in planning or commissioning a sports facility, this one is for you.

Register here: https://parksleisure.com.au/event/sporteng-webinar-delivering-high-performance-sports-facilities-at-a-community-level-within-realistic-council-or-school-budgets/

Home Events SPORTENG Webinar – Delivering High-Performance Sports Facilities at a Community Level, within Realistic Council or School Budgets

26/05/2026

Bringing in Field of Play expertise after tender is one of the most common and costly mistakes in sports facility delivery.

Lucas Skelton and Jonathan Douglas recorded a webinar sharing practical lessons from projects across Australia on why early specialist input changes outcomes. They cover how local conditions (climate, soil, usage patterns, and regulations) shape Field of Play design, ''why a one size fits all'' approach fails, and how having both local knowledge and technical knowledge on the same team makes a real difference.

If you're involved in planning or delivering sports facilities, this one's worth checking out. Watch now! 👇
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6iItlt_JD0

Too many sports facility projects bring in Field of Play expertise too late, after tender, when costly redesigns and construction headaches are already bake...

19/05/2026

We worked closely with Barbaro to complete the design and construct specification for the resurfacing of Arenas 1 and 2 at the Sydney International equestrian centre

We assisted with the civil works and specification of the Ebb and flow equestrian system by Martin Collins. A unique system that holds water beneath the sand profile and provides stability in the surface to allow horses to perform.

The facility was reconstructed to give Australia an elite training ground in preparation for the 2032 Olympics.

Well done, Maria for managing this project end to end, and kudos to our VIC Team Lead for backing her development behind the scenes.

12/05/2026

Three schools. Two soccer fields. One tight programme.

SPORTENG completed the detailed design and documentation for natural turf soccer pitches at three Victorian School Building Authority schools, working alongside DesignInc as part of the broader school delivery team.

Our scope covered agronomic design, detailed design, and irrigation design. Getting all three right from the start is what gives a natural turf pitch its best chance of performing well and holding up over the life of the facility.

Construction is now underway. Looking forward to seeing these Fields of Play take shape, and to the students who'll use them for years to come!

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nkostos_thrilled-to-announce-weve-recently-completed-activity-7416780290364268544-skcH?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAA5rXdcB7fq5ljjw4msU6xjdsKPtOtVgXxk

Thrilled to announce we've recently completed Ngayuk College and Marra School on the same Kalkallo site – two brand-new schools delivered in a very tight 12 month program. Pushed through some serious challenges to get them ready for Term 1, 2026. Ngayuk is a growing secondary college for up to 800...

07/05/2026

Fresh eyes on a fresh surface 🌱

Lucas Skelton, our Field of Play Team Lead, visited the Ted Summerton Reserve last week for an early post-construction check on the newly upgraded natural turf oval.

The surface is looking exactly how you want it at this stage: pristine, healthy, and settling in well. Lucas put the profile through its paces with on-site testing to confirm what the eye was already suggesting: the turf is tracking well beneath the surface, too.

A project like this doesn't arrive looking like that by accident. It's the result of a design process that got the specification right from the start. And that's down to Project Lead Faris, who managed and designed this one end-to-end. The surface speaks for itself.
Well done, Faris and the full SPORTENG team!

Construction on the surrounding precinct is still underway, but the Field of Play itself is ready to go 🎉

06/05/2026

SPORTENG is heading to Orange, NSW, next week for the PLA NSW Conference, and we're coming with something worth hearing.

National Field of Play Team Lead Lucas Skelton and NSW Field of Play Consultant Jonathan Douglas will be at the conference from 10–12 May. On Tuesday at 11:15am, Lucas takes the floor in the Open Space Infrastructure stream to walk through how climate, soil conditions, and usage patterns shape design outcomes, drawing on real projects from across Australia.

It's the kind of session that changes how you approach a brief. If you're a council officer or open space manager with a project on the horizon, this one is worth being in the room for.

If you're attending, come and find us at our stand! We'd love to talk through what you're working on.
Register here: https://icebergevents-nswact-region-conference-2026.eventsair.site/