How Stonedge Gardens and FieldTurf Australia transformed Illawarra Christian School
HOW STONEDGE GARDENS AND FIELDTURF AUSTRALIA TRANSFORMED ILLAWARRA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Nestled away in Cordeaux Heights, New South Wales is Illawarra Christian School. As of 2020, they were facing an all-too-common problem: hosting natural grass fields in the face of harsh Australian weather conditions. This caused several issues, including the prevalence of struggling grass, field quality degradation, poor drainage, non-usability in wet conditions but most seriously, it had become dangerous for the players – causing injuries to the point it was breaking bones. The ruthlessness of the extremely hard natural grass surface was taking on a toll on the players. In addition to that, an adjacent sloping hill was shifting soil near the school’s oval, further damaging the grass.
In stepped Stonedge Gardens, Sydney-based landscaping experts. To tackle the shifting soil from the sloping hill, Stonedge Gardens brought in 250 large sandstone logs and built a three-tier retaining wall which would stabilize the hill and provide bench seating with a built-in amphitheatre. This would act as a viewing platform for the new field. To significantly improve drainage, the experts at Stonedge then removed the existing grass and installed Agg pipes connected to large pits. The final and most important step was to replace the field with new synthetic turf. The mission was to build a full-size hockey field and 3 mini-futsal fields within the hockey field using the 2600sqm of area available. This is where the expertise of FieldTurf Australia came into play.
To meet Illawarra Christian School’s multi-purpose play requirement for futsal and hockey, experts at FieldTurf Australia recommended Tournament Pro, a hard-wearing solution that can handle the heavy-traffic intensity that comes with futsal, while also allowing seamless ball roll for hockey play, thanks to its non-directional properties. Tournament Pro served as a perfect fit for Illawarra’s new synthetic sports field, offering strong resistance and requiring low maintenance. It also demonstrated excellent drainage properties, enhancing the already-upgraded drainage system put in place by Stonedge Gardens using the Agg pipes. Furthermore, as leaders in artificial grass, FieldTurf used its expertise in global international sport to supply tufted-in white and yellow line markings, saving the installer significant time and effort to do this using their own resources. Our friends at Stonedge Gardens installed the new surface with FieldTurf Tournament Pro.
The project commenced on 14th December 2020 with earthworks underway. On April 1, 2021, the project was officially completed.
“Rick and his team at Stonedge Gardens prepared and installed a complete replacement of our school oval from grass to synthetic grass in order to improve the usability of the oval especially after wet weather. The Stonedge Gardens team are meticulous in their attention to detail and we are delighted with the result. They are a pleasure to work with and come with our highest recommendation.”
– Rob Thomas, Business Manager at Illawarra Christian School
“We have been using Fieldturf Australia as our choice of suppliers of synthetic grass products within our landscaping business for years and will continue to do so in future. They have a huge range of Australian Made synthetic grass products for residential, commercial, and sporting use. The products are always the highest quality and most realistic looking on the market. Always friendly customer service and support. We highly recommend Fieldturf Australia for any synthetic grass products.”
– Rick Goncalves, Director at Stonedge Gardens
For more information on Stonedge Gardens, click here.
For more information on Illawarra Christian School, click here.
