The election commitment would replace the ageing Hickey Pavilion with new clubrooms, female and junior change rooms, a kitchen, storage areas and spaces intended for broader community use. Westaway announced the pledge with Shadow Minister for Sport Brad Battin during a training session at the reserve on Friday 9 October.
The promise puts a substantial funding offer on the table seven weeks before Victorians vote on 28 November. It also raises pressure on Labor and other candidates to respond to a long-running campaign by the City of Stonnington and local clubs for a facility that can cope with growing participation.
Orrong Romanis is home to the Toorak Prahran Cricket Club, the Melbourne Unicorns and the Melbourne Chargers rugby union club. The cricket club says it is Victoria’s largest junior cricket club, while cricket and rugby teams share heavily used grounds and facilities across the precinct.
But the pavilion has not kept pace with that growth. Clubs say they have outgrown the building, which has no dedicated change rooms for girls and women, no hot showers, no kitchen and no accessible facilities. Existing change rooms are also inadequate for the number and mix of teams using the reserve.
Those shortcomings have become more pressing as junior and female participation has increased. They affect basic match-day needs, limit the clubs’ capacity to welcome new players and leave volunteers trying to run busy programs from a building described by the Coalition as dilapidated and substandard.
Westaway said the reserve was where local children first picked up a bat or rugby ball and where families spent their weekends. “Girls and women who play here should have the same facilities as the boys and men. Right now they do not have a change room of their own, and that is not good enough,” she said.
Stonnington Mayor has advocated for upgrade to the Hickey Pavilion
Stonnington Mayor Cr Melina Sehr welcomed the promise and said the council’s draft Sports Infrastructure Plan identified Hickey Pavilion as one of the municipality’s most constrained sporting buildings. “The ovals have very high utilisation by a range of local sporting clubs and casual users, which is why this site has been a focus of council advocacy,” she said.
Cr Sehr said the project could build on $300,000 committed by the Labor Government in the 2026 state budget, $90,000 in the council’s capital plan and a combined $20,000 contribution from the cricket and rugby clubs. She called on other candidates to match the Coalition’s $6 million commitment.
Recent investment at the reserve has included upgraded LED floodlighting and resurfaced tennis and multipurpose courts. However, the pavilion remains the major unresolved piece of infrastructure, particularly for equitable access and the continued growth of girls’ and women’s sport.
Club leaders said the promise recognised years of joint advocacy. Toorak Prahran Cricket Club president Neil Gumley said proper change rooms for girls and women were “long overdue”, while Melbourne Rugby Union Football Club president Michelle Iezzi said a new pavilion would give junior and women’s teams, as well as the wider community, a home they could be proud of.
The $6 million remains an election promise rather than secured funding and depends on a change of government. With the formal campaign beginning in early November, the Orrong Romanis upgrade is now set to become a local test of how the major parties respond to ageing community infrastructure, fast-growing participation and demands for fairer sporting facilities.
Battin / Westaway media statement
Both ALP and Greens candidates were contacted for comment
