What's Happening in Randwick, NSW…

Work has begun on the upgrade of a popular park within the City of Randwick.

Pioneers Park, located in Malabar, is among the city's favourite sporting fields, where games of cricket and AFL are played on the upper section of the park and rugby league takes place on its lower grounds.

The redevelopment is being undertaken by Randwick Council and will see the surfaces of the two lower fields replaced with natural and synthetic grass, respectively. The all-weather synthetic playing field will allow community groups to use the facility more often without the need for cancellations in times of wet weather. Meanwhile, the upgrade of Pioneer Park's sports field will effectively lower the cost of maintenance.

The site, on which work began in December, is being monitored by an Environmental Engineer and Hygienist (JBSG) during the removal of soil on the base layer. This was deemed necessary due to the history of the site, which was once dedicated to landfill and was found to have traces of materials containing asbestos.

Flyer printing campaigns have often been used to keep residents aware of the progress of projects such as the one underway at Pioneers Park.

As part of the redevelopment process, the existing grass needs to be killed off and a layer of the field's top soil removed to allow for the preparation of base layers for the new grounds. This will be followed by the installation of the new fields, which is expected to be completed by May 2021.