First turf installed at new Orange Sports Precinct

The first of 86,000 rolls of turf have been rolled out at Orange’s new sports precinct, beginning to cover the precinct’s eight new sporting fields.

Orange City Council last year award the contract for turfing eight new sporting fields to the Never Stop Water Group, a water and irrigation firm, based in Sydney that specialises in sporting fields.

The first rolls of freshly-harvested rolls of Santa Anna couch grass arrived on-site this week with Orange City Mayor Tony Mileto noting the laying of the turf comes after weeks of preparation on the sports fields, which began after 16 kilometres of drainage and 6.8 km of irrigation pipes were installed and the installation of the wickets.

Mayor Mileto shared “the beauty of these new fields is that for the first time in Orange, they’ve been topped with a layer of 200 mm of sand.

“That means that in future when other fields are turning to mud after heavy rain, these new fields at the sports precinct are going to be playable again much sooner.”

The challenge with growing grass in sand is lack of nutrient to let the grass grow. To meet that challenge, crews have been spreading a specially-formulated blend of Dynamic Lifter, other fertiliser and gypsum.

After the fertiliser is spread across the fields, special tractor-mounted equipment called a Blecovator, folds the fertiliser mix into the sand layer. Then, when the turf is rolled out, and the irrigation is turned on, the new turf has ideal growing conditions that it needs.

It’s expected to take around 7 to 8 days to lay all the turf on the first four fields.

Orange City Council Recreation & Culture Committee Chair Cr Tammy Greenhalgh has welcomed the latest progress enthusing “It’s great to be seeing steady progress on the precinct site.

“While we’re expecting the stadium project to go out to tender in the coming months, it’s important for local residents to also see practical progress on the new sports fields.

“With turf now growing, it’s really starting to look like a place where we can imagine sport happening.”

The precinct’s three cricket pitches have been growing their grass since December last year.

Orange City Council is expecting the eight new fields will be ready for the next cricket season, later this year.

The NSW Government has committed $59.5 million to the project and the Australian Government has committed $15 million to the Orange Sports Precinct project.

Image. Orange City Council members Cr Marea Ruddy, Mayor Tony Mileto and Cr Tammy Greenhalgh spent a day helping roll out first grass on the new sportsfields. Credit: Orange City Council