Balmain Leagues Club
- Rita Bratovich
- May 21
- 2 min read
Updated: May 25
From useless eyesore to community centrepiece
By Rita Bratovich
After years as a festering scar on the landscape, the dilapidated former Balmain Leagues Club is relinquishing its coveted plot of land to a magnificent new development — Rozelle Village.
Inner West Council and developers have finally found common ground on a piece of turf that has sat in grime and potential for 15 years. The old Balmain Rugby League Club is located on an enviable block on a high point on Victoria Rd, close to the intersection with Darling St.
Developers have had aspirations for a multi-level complex ever since the premises was vacated in 2010, but they have been locked in battle with the then Leichhardt and later Inner West Council over the details.
Now at last, developers PERIFA (of Versatile Group) and Mitsubishi Estate Asia (MEA) have got the green light on a 16-storey, mixed-use apartment building and community precinct.
The New Rozelle Village
Named Rozelle Village, the new site will feature 227 apartments, of which 59 will come under the Minns Government In-Fill Affordable Housing initiative.
The residence will include a selection of well-appointed one, two, and three-bedroom apartments, as well as penthouses featuring views across the cityscape and harbour.
The area around the buildings will become a public square with stylish landscaping, activated laneways, and outdoor seating. Commercial and retail offerings include a range of food and hospitality venues, a community art studio and a full-line supermarket.
Rozelle Village is anticipated to become a focal point for locals and a destination for visitors. The design melds vintage aesthetic with modern vision, bringing past and present harmoniously together.
History of the Balmain Leagues Club
Balmain is one of Sydney’s oldest suburbs and the area’s residents have always exhibited local pride. In 1908, when the NSW Rugby League first formed, the Balmain team (the Tigers as they were later known) was one of the original nine sides in the competition. The Tigers were also one of the most successful teams, with a premiership tally second only to St George and South Sydney up until the mid-1990s.
Financial woes forced the team to merge with the Western Suburbs Magpies in 1999, where they became the Wests Tigers.
In 2010, the NSW Government asked the club to vacate its premises on Victoria Road due to a metro transport project that ultimately never eventuated. (A metro station on a revised route is now being built on James Craig Rd, closer to Rozelle Bay.)
During the intervening years, while people bickered over blueprints, the building gradually fell into ruin. Anything that wasn’t bolted down (and some things that were) was stolen; it was graffitied and vandalised and it rusted and crumbled. Youths, artists and the homeless all took advantage of the abandoned monolith. It degenerated into an ugly wreck, even as massive new infrastructure was being built all around.
That old building has already been demolished, and the first cement will be poured any day now. Rozelle Village is expected to be completed in 2028. We can’t wait.
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