New fiscal year brings an opportunity for community park improvements

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Crown Reserves Improvement Fund

The Crown Reserves Improvement Fund (CRIF) supports Crown land managers (CLMs) by providing funding for repairs, maintenance and improvements on Crown reserves. The funding aims to benefit the community, boost our economy and contribute to the cultural, sporting and recreational life of NSW.

It is self-sustainable, as the interest and repayments from previous projects help fund newer and ongoing works within NSW Crown Lands.

Crown Land is owned and managed by the NSW State Government, which equates to roughly 42% of the state of New South Wales. Among other categories, reserves make up 3.1 million hectares of NSW Crown Land.

Crown reserves are land dedicated on behalf of the community for public use and purposes, with the most notable being recreation and sport. The Crown Reserves Improvement Fund (CRIF) supports Crown land managers (CLMs), wherein, after evidence and applications are approved, funding is provided for the aforementioned repairs, maintenance, and improvements on Crown reserves. This can stem a wide variety of issues that community groups deem necessary and urgent to take on. Emu Park in Penrith received $160,000 to upgrade sports field floodlighting at Dukes Oval Sportsground in 2021, whereas Eric Mobbs Reserve in Winston Hills received $14,000 to construct an undercover seating area for lunch tables and shelter at the sports park.

The CRIF aims to build community rapport, support jobs and the economy, and further build upon NSW’s proud sporting culture.

If you are a CLM who wishes to explore the benefits of the CRIF for your local park or field, the following actions are recommended by Crown Land. The funding is expected to be open in September 2023, so obtaining quotes and supporting documentation, such as  potential uses, and the outcomes achieved if this project is successful.

Any successful grant will be credited in early 2024, in the last fiscal year (2022-2023, the CRIF funded 267 projects totalling just under $18 million.

The CLM in question must not have any outstanding CRIF projects or funding if they wish their application to be eligible. Any outstanding project must be completed within 12 months of receiving funding, and all project reports must be finalised within 14 months.

If this is the first project for a CLM, they must register for access on the CRIF reserve funding management page. Only select persons from each CLM are authorised to apply for funding, and these can be found on the CRIF website. Applicant details must be input, such as the CLM’s ABN, the park or crown land that the project is to be completed at.

Activity details are also a relevant topic that must be detailed and outlined in your application. In this section, the CLM needs to answer how the project will be done, and what benefit will be achieved in doing so. Images and maps are strongly recommended, particularly if funding is for pest management and weeding.

You must submit quotes for the project to the CRIF in order for your project to be considered. Depending on the grant that is being asked for, will determine the number of minimum quotes provided by the CLM for the CRIF to consider the application. At least one quote is needed for any grant from $0-$30,000, three or more for $30,001-$150,000, and anything more than this will need significant financial strategy from the CLM to provide cost estimates.

As the first funding round will open in September 2023, CLMs are encouraged to obtain quotes and relevant supporting documentation for a CRIF grant.

For full information and to apply, click here.

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Football Victoria and VicHealth partner on anti-racism program as community sport data reveals systemic problem

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Image Credit: Shutterstock

Football Victoria has partnered with the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation to roll out the Set The Standard initiative across the state’s football clubs, in a collaboration that signals a significant shift in how Australia’s most popular club-based sport is approaching racism and cultural exclusion at the grassroots level.

The partnership brings together the state’s peak football governing body and its primary health promotion agency around a shared finding that can no longer be treated as incidental. According to the 2025 report Enhancing the Capacity of Victorian Community Sport to Tackle Racism, 56 per cent of surveyed participants had experienced or witnessed racism in community sport. In a state where football draws participants from some of the most culturally diverse communities in the country, that figure represents a systemic failure the sport can no longer address through conduct policies alone.

Clubs that subscribe to the Set The Standard newsletter will be entered into a draw to win one of three $1,000 vouchers, available for equipment, facility improvements, events or other community initiatives. The incentive is designed to drive early engagement with a program whose ambitions extend well beyond a newsletter subscription.

What the Partnership Signals

Racism in sport has historically been treated as a conduct and governance issue, managed through complaints mechanisms that require incidents to be formally reported and tend to significantly undercount the actual prevalence of harm. VicHealth’s framing of racism as a public health problem repositions the entire conversation.

Experiences of racism are associated with measurable negative health outcomes including anxiety, depression and social withdrawal. When community sport, which governments and health agencies actively promote as a vehicle for physical and mental wellbeing, becomes a source of those same harms, the public health cost is direct and quantifiable.

Resources, not Rhetoric

For Football Victoria, the partnership brings something the governing body cannot provide on its own. VicHealth’s credibility, resources and public health framework give the initiative a foundation that a sporting organisation working alone would struggle to establish. Set The Standard offers clubs practical tools and guidance built around progress rather than perfection, which reflects a realistic understanding of how cultural change works inside volunteer-run community organisations.

The $1,000 vouchers are not a side note. Most community clubs operate on tight margins, depend on volunteer administrators and are already stretched managing growing participation demands. Finding room to invest in cultural development programs on top of everything else is difficult. Providing tangible resources directly addresses that constraint at the point where clubs are most likely to disengage.

The program also arrives at a consequential moment. Football in Victoria is absorbing significant participation growth following the AFC Women’s Asian Cup and sustained increases in junior registrations, bringing new communities into the game in large numbers. The 2025 data suggests the environments those communities are entering are not consistently safe or welcoming. Participation growth and cultural safety work need to move together. A sport that grows larger without becoming more inclusive has not actually improved the experience of the people playing it.

Two NPL VIC clubs receive funding boost from State Budget

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Image credit: Football Victoria

Following the announcement of the 2026 Victoria State Budget, Avondale FC and Hume City FC will both receive major backing for facility upgrades.

 

Valuable support for future projects

Avondale and Hume City now have immensely valuable financial support for infrastructure and facility upgrade projects.

Avondale will see an injection of $500,000 for lighting developments at its home ground, Avenger Park. Meanwhile, Hume City FC, will receive $250,000 to further improve its home ground, Nasiol Stadium, which opened in 2009.

Both clubs expressed their delight at the funding from the State Labor Government, and what the backing may bring to club facilities and overall development going forward.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Victorian Government and Sheena Watt for their support through this $500,000 lighting upgrade investment, which will have a lasting impact on our players, families and the wider Avondale community,” said Avondale Club President, Stephen Strano.

“We have hundreds of players across all age groups utilising these facilities each week, and these improvements will help create an even strong environment for excellence, participation, and community engagement,” outlined Hume City President, Ersan Gülüm.

As a result of these respective investments, both NPL VIC outfits appear set for incredibly opportunities to modernise, develop and strengthen their club infrastructure.

 

Lighting the path to a brighter future

The investments will see features such as lighting upgrades improve facility access for men’s and women’s teams, and LED scoreboards become part of a more modern matchday experiences going forward.

For both clubs, however, lighting upgrades are about more than keeping a pitch open late at night. Improved lighting is a means to a more accessible and supportive future in which both the men’s and women’s teams can utliise local facilities, and matchdays can take place in the excitement of playing ‘under the lights’.

And as Football Victoria CEO, Dan Birrell, highlighted, the improvements made to club facilities are benchmarks for the wider Victorian football community.

“Both Avondale and Hume City are pillars in the Victorian football landscape,” Birrell stated via press release.

“Professional level facilities like Avenger Park and Nasiol Stadium are critical for the development of Victorian football and Football Victoria welcomes the news that they will continue to improve thanks to the support of the Victorian State Government.”

 

More must follow

While the investments from the State Government come as welcome updates for these two clubs, there is still plenty more to be done to evenly develop facilities and infrastructure across Victoria’s football landscape.

Indeed, Avondale FC and Hume City FC are two fantastic community clubs who will no doubt put the funding towards impactful improvements.

But there are plenty more who still need external backing to build infrastructure not just for now, but for future seasons to come.

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