{"id":6876,"date":"2026-05-07T19:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/6876\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T19:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:43:10","slug":"hillcrest-reserve-to-get-11-3-million-facelift-as-council-unanimously-approve-staged-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/6876\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillcrest Reserve to get $11.3 million facelift as council unanimously approve staged upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"

The popular Hillcrest Reserve in Bayswater will be getting a much-needed facelift after approval was given for $11.3 million worth of upgrades.<\/p>\n

The City of Bayswater council unanimously opted for a staged redevelopment rather than a more expensive $20 million option at its April 28 meeting.<\/p>\n

The long-awaited works will deliver a major renewal of the ageing Coode Street public asset, home to the Bayswater Blues and Bayswater Morley District Cricket Club, as well as several other sporting groups and the wider community.<\/p>\n

The upgrade will focus on improving existing infrastructure, including refurbished clubrooms and changerooms, upgraded toilets and storage, new LED sports lighting to increase night-time use, improved parking and pedestrian access, safer connections, enhanced spectator areas and scoreboards, refreshed playgrounds, more shade and seating, barbecue facilities, exercise equipment, dog-friendly amenities and upgraded cricket nets.<\/p>\n

The $20 million option involved building a brand new two-storey facility.<\/p>\n

\"LowerCamera IconLower Hillcrest Reserve cricket nets are to be upgraded. Credit: City of Bayswater<\/p>\n

At the city\u2019s meeting, councillor Cale Black said the staged approach struck the right balance between delivering upgrades and managing costs while reflecting strong support from clubs and stakeholders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pleased to support this motion for us tonight; it\u2019s great to see a lot of clubs supporting this as well as through our deputations process last week,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what\u2019s being presented to council is an appropriate approach, especially when we consider a staged approach as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said improved lighting was a key priority, particularly during winter when limited daylight restricted training.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn winter when it comes to clubs training down there, it does get a bit difficult with the sun setting and lower Hillcrest in particular without having appropriate lighting does restrict that usage of that reserve,\u201d Cr Black said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think having those lighting improvements prioritised as part of this process would be a fantastic approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cr Black said residents had concerns about a proposed 1.2m fence along Coode Street bur said it would not limit general access outside of organised sporting use.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough there is a 1.2m fence cited on the western side of the current option two plan, that doesn\u2019t mean that public access is restricted outside of the booked times for sport,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"LowerCamera IconLower Hillcrest Reserve will face some big upgrades, with council approving $11.3 million worth of works. Credit: City of Bayswater<\/p>\n

Cr Black said the reserve remained a popular space for dog walkers and the broader community and ongoing consultation would be critical as the project progresses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that engaging stakeholders as we always do is a great approach, especially the clubs there and the park users and the general community around the area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Deputy mayor Elli Petersen-Pik said smaller community requests, such as additional bins and seating identified during consultation, should not be delayed while the broader redevelopment was funded.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the feedback that residents mentioned as part of the survey were about very minor improvements to the reserve when it comes to more benches, bins, etc,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While basketball courts were not included in the approved plan, they could still be considered in future stages. The council was told a petition from residents would trigger a report to it, enabling elected members to decide whether to include courts.<\/p>\n

The city has not yet allocated full funding for the project and will instead pursue a mix of external grants and staged delivery through future budgets.<\/p>\n

The redevelopment is expected to be completed over multiple years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The popular Hillcrest Reserve in Bayswater will be getting a much-needed facelift after approval was given for $11.3…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[917,8296,1774,152,335,149,261,464],"class_list":{"0":"post-6876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-perth","8":"tag-central","9":"tag-community-news","10":"tag-local-government","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-perth","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-sport","15":"tag-wa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}