The historic Memorial Oval in Port Pirie has recently undergone one of the biggest upgrade projects of any regional sporting ground in South Australia. With over $20 Million spent on the project, the facility is now a world class sporting precinct, creating employment and offering sporting facilities that has already put Port Pirie on the map for football, soccer and recently the Masters Games.
Terrain Group was the winning tenderer for irrigation works to the ground’s ovals, as well as a new toilet building adjacent to the Western oval. With two full sized ovals, previously requiring as much as $16,000 worth of water each year just to keep the turf alive through the harsh mid-North summer, a drastic rethink of the irrigation system was required to ensure a world class playing surface was not only delivered, but maintained.
“Memorial Oval was a huge project and really technical too. Logistically, it was difficult working along side so many different trades, all on such tight timelines, but the result is awesome. The Oval is going to be running great for decades!”
Josh Gould
Trucking in tonnes of sand, both oval surfaces were entirely rebuilt, and a sophisticated irrigation system was installed that is capable of being used with reclaimed or mains water, all run from a central control system. The Toro Sentinel Central Control uses the latest technology to offer a desktop controlled irrigation system to control every station. The unique design of the main Memorial Oval, saw 166 sprinklers installed, each being their own station, giving the grounds staff individual control of every single sprinkler on the oval. With just 15m between sprinkler heads, this means the oval’s irrigation can be controlled to an unprecedented level of detail, ensuring the oval surface remains lush and healthy.
The three pitches on the Memorial Oval were individually boxed and each have their own layered grow medium structure, that differs form the remainder of the oval’s sub-surface grow medium, as well as a different turf, ideal for pitch use.
Over 40 years of experience in irrigation and water management
The original tender request, designed by Hydroplan with a pitch design by TurfWise, was for a cricket pitch, irrigation system and sub-soil drainage for the sports precinct. The architect for the overall project was Katanoo’s Jacobus Piennar. During the specification process, Jacobus also engaged Terrain to specify two toilet buildings for the precinct, one Burton 5 cubicle for the Western oval and a smaller Burton 2 cubicle for the Croquet field.
The new Memorial Oval Sports Precinct now includes an impressive indoor swim centre, facilities for gymnastics, squash, soccer, croquet and baseball and has already been used for SANFL matches. It is one of the most impressive, world class sporting facilities in a regional area, anywhere in Australia and Terrain Group are incredibly proud to have been such an integral part of bringing it to life.
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