Click here to view photos showing aspects of Wentworth Park that will be affected by the upgrade.

A former chair of the Blackwattle Cove Coalition once suggested that the only way to bring down the walls of Wentworth Park world be to strip off our gear on the night of the full moon and dance around the walls chanting.

Fortunately it hasn’t come to that!

As everyone knows, the walls on the western (Glebe) side of the park were replaced some time ago, and now the Wentworth Park Sporting Complex Trust and the Sydney City Council are about to finalise plans to rebuild the eastern (Wattle Street) entrance. And planning is proceeding to replace the northern (Blackwattle Bay) wall, and finally the wall near the children’s playground on the southern side. By 2013 the last remnants of the concrete block and barbed wire battlements should have disappeared. These walls are a legacy of the days of SP bookmakers before the TAB and have long been redundant.

The plans for the eastern entrance moves the existing wall back by up to eight meters from the heavy traffic in Wattle Street and creates a link between the northern and southern sections of the park. The project also involves the demolition of the old Ledger building, the removal of the infill in the arches of the railway viaduct that crosses the park, and the construction of changing facilities at the rear of the grandstand for sporting teams that use the park.

Work is expected to start in mid-June and should take 3-4 months to complete.

The project to remove the southern wall, which is part of a building, will bring other benefits as it will allow the Trust to increase parking within the complex and reduce the need for race night parking on the park to the south of the main entrance.

Although this area is outside be boundaries of the complex, the Trust is now responsible for its management and plans to upgrade it and possibly include a hard stand community sporting facility.

And in answer to the unasked question from eagle-eyed Glebe residents, the new building at the Glebe entrance of the complex is actually turnstiles required by the dog racing club for race nights. It has been carefully designed to blend in with other structures in the area.

– Bruce Davis, April 2010