This Just In: This North Shore Soccer Pitch Could Soon be Worth $20 Million
A flooding-prone suburbian soccer pitch has become a battleground between local council, scorned contractors and the wrath of mother nature.
A community soccer field in sleepy West Pymble has been trapped in construction purgatory, and now at the centre of a legal battle, ever since Ku-ring-gai Council began a redevelopment project to replace the grass field with a synthetic turf patch. Originally, it was estimated to cost $3.3 million — but by next week, it could be as much as $20 million. How did that happen?
In 2021, Ku-ring-gai Council commissioned the project to contractor Turf One with the intention of upgrading the pitch to meet its ever-increasing popularity (the council website says it anticipates 20,000 participants in the local area in 2026) and to eliminate its vulnerability to flooding via an all-weather synthetic surface, upgraded lighting and pathways and improved drainage.
An artist's rendering of an upgraded Norman Griffiths Oval, Ku-ring-gai Council
The budget expanded to $4.7 million in April 2024 after the discovery of asbestos contamination, the issuance of a pollution cleanup notice by the state-operated Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and, rather ironically, record rainfall paused work while 700,000 litres of stormwater were drained from the site.
While the project was initially envisioned to include a concrete stormwater detention tank — built to hold up to 2.4 million litres of water before draining — Turf One instead proposed an aggregation drainage system (a layer of porous rock that would allow water to slowly drain into surrounding soil).
Ku-ring-gai Council
Stormwater drainage proved to be the bane of the project, as progress crawled while sediment contamination into the nearby Quarry Creek was contained. By May 2025, with a now $6.9 million budget, council had terminated its contract with Turf One and taken possession of the site with its own project team, citing "environmental incidents, delays, design problems, budget increases and disputed claims for variations."
Stephen Hill, Chief Executive of Turf One's parent company BildGroup, shared his frustrations with the Sydney Morning Herald, saying, "I'm not sitting here saying we're clean – we got caught in the middle of a tit-for-tat. Since the first day, this process has been in complete shambles. We're outraged. I have never seen mismanagement like this."
Kristyn Haywood via Ku-ring-gai Views on Facebook
Since then, with added oversight from NSW Public Works, the council has developed an on-site water treatment system to tackle the flooding and has been ordered to pay Turf One $4.4 million over the termination, leading to a vote set for next Tuesday to discuss a total budget increase to $20 million to cover the legal costs. They've also reverted to the original drainage plan, adding $696,000 to the bill.
The revised plan will be open for community feedback next Tuesday. As for the actual players who would use the field? West Pymble FC has been locked out of their clubhouse since works began, and club president Kieron Fitzpatrick told the ABC their games have been "flung to the four corners of the Ku-ring-gai Council area" instead of their promised home pitch.
Top image: Northern Suburbs Football Association
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