Hurlstone Park Wanderers celebrate the opening of their new facility at Ewen Park

There are very few members of Hurlstone Park Wanderers or anyone in the local community who can remember the last time the club saw the opening of a new facility – it was more than 50 years ago.

For much of last century and all of this century, one of our sports largest local community football sporting clubs has been operating out of a tiny brick box canteen and a toilet block repurposed to provide storage for a club that has grown to have more than 1500 players.

The volunteers soldiered on, but they were frankly sick of it, and desperate for something more suitable.

And so, it is with incredible excitement the Club, along with City of Canterbury Bankstown Council and Football Canterbury will be opening an amazing state of the art sports facility on 22nd March 2024.

The new building has everything a club could wish for – a new modern and spacious canteen, a BBQ area under cover, a fantastic wi-fi enabled club room, and purpose built storage, as well as change rooms, accessible public toilets and amazing space that overlooks the field.

This new building has been made possible through the efforts of the Hurlstone Park Wanderers Football Club members who contributed to fund raising over more than two decades; through the support of Canterbury Bankstown Council who managed the project and provided critical funding, through the support and funding of Football Canterbury and most importantly a NSW Government Greater Cities Sport Facilities Fund grant.

“It has been amazing to see the transformation of Ewen Park with this incredible new building,” said Hurlstone Park Wanderers President Rosalie Viney.

“For those of us who have been with the club for many years, we are thrilled to be looking forward to our Centenary year with facilities that will be able to be enjoyed by all our members and other clubs”.

“The Greater Cities Sport Facility Fund has provided $50 million to improve community sports facilities and recreational spaces across greater Sydney, enabling more people to participate in sport and active recreation,” said NSW Minister for Sport Steve Kamper.

“The Fund focuses on inclusive projects that encourage the participation of females and people with disability through unisex change rooms or disability access.”

“Hurlstone Park Wanderers has been bringing the community together through football for 100 years. They’re an inner west institution,” said Member for Summer Hill Jo Haylen.

“It’s fantastic to be celebrating the opening of this amazing new amenities building on the day that we mark 100 years of the Wanderers. This will be a place where families come to enjoy their football for generations to come.”

The Club is celebrating its Centenary year, having been founded in 1924.

This year the club will be entering 92 teams in the Football Canterbury competition and will have more women’s teams than any other club in the Association.

The new facility means that women and girls can come to football and know they have clean, well lit and safe change rooms which is so important for the growth of sport in the community.

Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Bilal El-Hayek said it was exciting to open this new facility for a Club which has a deep history in our community.

“It has been an important part of the City’s strategy to provide state of the art sporting facilities and the new amenities building will be enjoyed by the community for generations to come.”

The NSW Government Greater Cities Sport Facilities Fund provided a grant of $1 million that made this new facility possible.

Hurlstone Park Wanderers Football Club provided co-funding of more than $400, 000 towards the facility and Football Canterbury have contributed $100,000 from their Infrastructure Fund to ensure that the new facility has state of the art security.

The CEO of Football Canterbury, Trent Thomas said, “The need for community sporting clubs to have contemporary facilities is paramount to the long-term future of organised sport. The investment made by Club, Association, Council, and State Government to bring Ewen Park into the 21st century will mean Hurlstone Park Wanderers can provide for all its participants and for future generations of community footballers.”

The Chair of Football Canterbury, Mr Nick Kambounias welcomed the new facility as a fantastic addition to the infrastructure for football.

“The new amenities building for the Hurlstone Park Wanderers Football Club is a fantastic facility which now compliments the upgraded fields and floodlighting at Ewen Park.

“As an association, Football Canterbury is proud to see its contribution, of both financial and in-kind resourcing, compliment that of both the Hurlstone Park Wanderers Club and the City of Canterbury Bankstown to drive the continual improvement of local sporting infrastructure for the benefit of not just members of the Wanderers club but of all participants within our local association.”

But what the club is most excited about is seeing their members enjoy the new facility with the opportunity to sit on the bleacher seats and enjoy the football.

The official opening of the new facility will take place on 22nd March at 5pm and will be followed by a celebratory picnic for the club and community.

-Hurlstone Park Wanderers Press Release