Clare Street Oval change rooms

The City of Hobart the $1.3 million project to overhaul the old, rundown change rooms at Clare Street Oval in New Town as part of the Tasmanian Government's Levelling the Playing Field grants program.

The project has created a safer environment for young women and girls involved in local sports clubs and encourage them to remain active in their chosen sport.

Research shows light, bright and clean changing rooms create a positive environment in which young women and girls feel more comfortable and confident, increasing female participation in sport.

This project has created a new, beautifully designed sports pavilion with:

four modern change rooms
two accessible toilets
ten lockable shower cubicles
two separate change rooms created for umpires with their own showers and toilets.

The old, separate toilet block has been demolished and replaced by new public toilets attached to the new sporting pavilion.

Why is this project important?

Participation in women's sport is surging across Australia, and the number and quality of sporting facilities plays a key role in encouraging and sustaining this growth.

The New Town White Eagles Football Club, which calls Clare Street Oval home, is no exception, but the ability for more young girls to get involved with the club has been hampered by the condition of the old local sporting facilities, which were built in the 1970s.

The change rooms, which were built in the 1970s, had no accessible toilets, no lockable showers, and just two change rooms.

The City of Hobart encourages greater female participation in sport and upgrading the changerooms at Clare Street Oval supports this. The sporting facilities are highly utilised with both women's cricket and soccer being played at the ground.

How was this project funded?

The City of Hobart contributed $850 000 to this $1.3 million project as part of its commitment to levelling the playing field for young girls and women and people with disabilities.

The project has also been funded through the Tasmanian Government's Levelling the Playing Field Grants Program, which provided $450 000.