Wickham's Passmore Oval to receive female changerooms in $2.35 million grandstand upgrade

A new two-storey structure will be built behind the heritage-listed grandstand, which will include female change rooms, a meeting room and disability features including amenities, a lift and viewing space for wheelchair users.

The ground is home to the Hamilton Hawks Rugby Club and is also used in the summer for cricket.

Hamilton Hawks president Lesa Mason said the club had been trying to source redevelopments for more than 15 years, and in that time female participation in the club had grown exponentially.

In the past few years alone, she estimated the number of female players had increased three to four times over.

"And it's growing each year because of the success of our women's rugby program at a higher level and the pathways that are provided," she said.

But the women currently have to wait for the male players to finish in the change rooms before they can use them.

"We kind of have to time going into the change rooms after second grade finish and after first grade go on," player Vivien Clay said. "It's a bit of a juggle. So it's definitely going to improve our game day experience, being able to have a change room that's ours."

Mason believed having a dedicated female area would encourage more girls and women to join the sport.

"To provide them with their own spaces is going to give us a bit of a lead in front of everybody else," she said.

The rugby club sourced $1 million from the NSW government's Greater Cities Sport Facility Fund for the project and council will fund the rest.

The ground is not alone in its need for female-friendly facilities. Council's strategic sports plan adopted in 2020 identified a need for upgraded amenities or change rooms at almost 20 venues across the city and said "the condition of supporting amenities at many grounds is poor".

Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the heritage grandstand at Passmore meant the additions were "not a very cheap fix", which would be the case with other sporting grounds around the city.

"When you're looking at over $2 million each time you do it throughout the city, it is an expensive prospect," she said.

However she said councillor Peta Winney-Baartz, who chairs the council's sports advisory committee, had been working "cheek by jowl with a lot of the clubs throughout Newcastle" on female changerooms "that will get rolled out over successive budgets".

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