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After years of political wrangling, community protests and a failed campaign to preserve one of Sydney’s long-held suburban sporting grounds, residents have been given their clearest picture yet of a proposed transformation of TG Millner Reserve in Marsfield.
A $128.9 million plan lodged with Ryde Council this week shows the former spiritual home of Eastwood Rugby Club is one step closer to being bulldozed to make way for a 106-home housing estate.
The proposal marks a major milestone in a bitter battle that has pitted Ryde Council against the NSW government, divided residents and highlighted growing tensions between housing growth and the increasing pressure on sporting fields across Sydney.
The plans by TGM Developer Pty Ltd, a consortium involving property developer Winston Langley and the Abadeen Group, represent a significant departure from an earlier proposal for 132 seniors housing dwellings on the site. Instead, the revised plan would deliver 106 private homes ranging from three to five bedrooms.
The six-hectare development would involve the demolition of the district-grade rugby field, grandstand, North Ryde RSL Sports Club and Guardian Childcare Marsfield, a 78-place centre operating within the site. It is understood families were informed in January that the centre would cease operating in December 2026 and families would be supported to transition to alternative nearby services.
Development plans lodged with the council describe the project as a “garden neighbourhood” designed to balance housing supply with open space. The proposal includes a new public park and the planting of 456 trees, offsetting the loss of 253 existing trees that would be removed during construction works.
The unveiling of the plans is the latest chapter in the fraught history of the site, which has served as the home of Eastwood Rugby and generations of its members and supporters since 1950.
In more recent decades, however, the club has faced increasing financial pressures as participation in local rugby union declined and the club’s players, members and sponsors increasingly shifted towards Sydney’s rapidly growing north-west.
Planning documents to the council stated suburban development around the fields has also created ongoing conflicts over parking, lighting and match-day crowds, limiting opportunities to expand operations.
As ageing facilities became increasingly expensive to maintain, Eastwood Rugby and North Ryde RSL – which acquired the site in 2017 – ultimately opted to relocate to a new Centre of Excellence at Fred Caterson Reserve, almost 20 kilometres away in Castle Hill.
To help fund the move, TG Millner Reserve was sold to TGM Landowner Pty Ltd in December last year.
Ryde Council has consistently opposed residential development of the site, arguing the loss of TG Millner would worsen a shortage of sporting fields as housing development accelerates across surrounding suburbs including Macquarie Park and North Ryde.
Between 2018 and 2020, the council explored heritage listing the site but abandoned the effort after independent studies found it lacked sufficient local heritage significance.
It later set aside $15 million and sought state approval to compulsorily acquire the land. However, the bid collapsed when Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig rejected the request, citing concerns about the council’s ability to fund both the purchase and ongoing maintenance of the site.
The council has continued to campaign against the redevelopment. Last month, Mayor Trenton Brown described TG Millner as critical community infrastructure and launched a $40,000 council-funded campaign urging the community to support efforts to save the fields and pressure Planning Minister Paul Scully to reject the rezoning.
But councillor Lyndal Howison, who is Labor’s candidate for Ryde at next year’s state election, warned the campaign risked creating false hope, noting the Sydney North Planning Panel had already determined the proposal had strategic merit and should proceed through the planning system.
In its 2025 ruling, the panel found the redevelopment would help deliver much-needed “missing middle” housing – a decision welcomed by North Ryde RSL chief executive Joe Kelly, who said redevelopment would help secure the long-term future of both the RSL and Eastwood Rugby.
In a statement, Winston Langley executive director David Hynes said: “Ryde Council has opposed the proposal at every stage and has spent over $100,000 of ratepayers’ money and passed over a dozen mayoral minutes seeking to devalue the privately-owned land, confuse the public, and bleed the community clubs into submission.”
“Winston Langley and Abadeen are committed to delivering a project that provides meaningful community benefits through 106 low-rise homes for families and extensive publicly accessible open space,” he said.
Ryde state Liberal MP Jordan Lane has backed the council’s renewed campaign and accused the NSW government of failing to properly support the reserve.
“The government has laid out the red carpet for the redevelopment of this site but should not allow this proposal to be approved,” Lane said.
“For a site of this size to yield fewer than 300 homes is an abysmal use of land that will achieve very little in terms of housing supply while coming at the cost of a huge expanse of open space that our community is already short of.”
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David Barwell is an urban affairs reporter for The Sydney Morning HeraldConnect via email.From our partners
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