After almost a decade of advocacy, setbacks, planning, meetings, redesigns and persistence, Balmain & District Football Club can finally say the words our community has waited years to hear:
Works are officially underway on Building 497 – the BDFC Clubhouse!
For generations, BDFC has called Callan Park home. Thousands of local children have taken their first kick on the Waterfront fields. Volunteers have built teams, friendships and community spirit here season after season. But standing beside those fields for decades has been a building full of unrealised potential – boarded up, deteriorating, and disconnected from the life happening around it.
Now, that is changing.
Building 497 is being transformed into a modern clubhouse and community facility that will support grassroots sport, local families and the wider Inner West community for generations to come.
This is far more than a construction project.
It is the restoration of a long-neglected heritage building.
It is the creation of a true community hub at the heart of Callan Park.
And for BDFC, it represents the culmination of years of work by volunteers, members, partners and supporters who refused to let the vision fade away.
The milestone was officially marked at Callan Park on Thursday 14 May 2026, alongside Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully, Member for Summer Hill Jo Haylen, Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne, representatives from Greater Sydney Parklands, project partners and members of the local community.
BDFC President, Paul Avery, said the moment was emotional for many people connected to the club..
“Balmain & District Football Club has called Callan Park home for generations, and this project reflects everything our club and community have worked towards.
After almost a decade of advocacy and partnership, we are so excited to finally see works get underway on Building 497. Transforming this important heritage building into a modern facility will serve thousands of local players and families for years to come.
Football continues to grow across the Inner West, particularly among girls and women, and we’re proud of the role our club has played in that growth. This clubhouse ensures Callan Park remains a place where people can come together, stay active, and support each other’s wellbeing.”
Activating Callan Park for Community Use
For many in the BDFC community, seeing the colourful new scrim go up, machinery arriving on site and works commencing will feel almost surreal.
Back in 2017, Building 497 was still sitting abandoned beside the Waterfront fields – closed off, deteriorating and largely forgotten. At the time, the idea that it could one day become a vibrant sporting and community facility seemed ambitious. But the volunteers at BDFC believed Callan Park deserved more.
That belief became a long-term campaign to activate the building for community use and ensure sport remained an integral part of the future of Callan Park.
As the official BDFC Clubhouse, the completed facility will include modern player amenities, changerooms, accessible toilets, meeting and community spaces, administration facilities, storage, café and social areas, and spaces designed to support both grassroots sport and broader community use.
A Bigger Vision for Callan Park
The activation of Building 497 is also deeply connected to the future of sport and recreation at Callan Park more broadly.
Alongside the proposed all-weather field project at Waterfront Drive, B497 forms part of a bigger vision: creating an active, accessible and sustainable community recreation precinct that can support the growing Inner West community year-round.
The two projects work hand in hand.
Reliable playing surfaces increase participation opportunities and reduce washouts. Building 497 provides the community infrastructure needed to support that activity – from changerooms and amenities, through to meeting spaces, canteen and social connection.
Together, they represent a future where Callan Park is more active, more welcoming and more connected to the community than ever before.
That vision has always been central to BDFC’s proposal for the site: activating Building 497 in a way that complements the Waterfront sporting grounds and creates lasting community benefit.
From Derelict Building to Community Asset
One of the most powerful parts of this story is the transformation itself.
Over the coming months, BDFC will continue sharing photos and milestones from the journey – from the boarded-up condition of the building nearly a decade ago, through to the restoration works now underway and the future BDFC Clubhouse and community facility taking shape beside the Waterfront fields.
For everyone who has supported the project along the way: this moment belongs to you too.
The future of community sport at Callan Park is finally taking shape.
