Redfern revolution
Now
Redfern, the heartland of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Sydney rugby league’s oldest and most successful club, is undergoing a red and green rebirth. Proclaimed as public land back in 1885, the site is where the “Pride of the League” held sway in the 50s and late 60s and where the great Victor Trumper hit 335 in three hours back in 1903. The adjoining Redfern Park was in 1992 home to Paul Keating’s famous speech to commemorate International Year of the World’s Indigenous People.
Future
Work began in 2007 on an “open, attractive and accessible park with professional sporting facilities” destined as headquarters for South Sydney’s first-graders as well as local junior and school sports teams plus the district’s indigenous league squad, the Redfern All Blacks. The old grandstands, high concrete walls and barbed wire fencing have been removed, replaced by gently sloping grass terraces, a state-of-the-art spectator stand with the surrounding park benefiting from new trees and shrubs, improved lighting, upgraded paths and kerbs, children’s play areas and a restoration of the park’s historic war memorial and fountain, now to become an interactive waterplay feature designed by renowned indigenous artist, Fiona Foley.
