Plans to revive Whanganui East’s Williams Domain

Williams Domain is getting a new lease of life. Photo / Bevan Conley

Life is set to return to to the semi-dormant Williams Domain in Whanganui East.

The unfenced domain sits between the Whanganui East Pool and the Hakeke Street Community Centre and Library and has been prone to vandalism from vehicles.

Sarah O’Hagan, Whanganui District Council property and open spaces general manager, said a seasonal licence had been issued to the Whanganui Football Charitable Trust to use the domain for games and training for the 2024 season.

“That’s primarily because football is growing and Wembley Park can’t keep up with demand, particularly in the practice space,” she said.

O’Hagan said the trust had funding to install fencing around the domain and the council would acknowledge that, through any charges for the licence.

“The trust can establish itself in that space, like they have at Wembley Park.

“Wanganui and Old Boys Rugby Club owns the lights and the sheds that sit on the domain so we will work out a licence for the trust to take that on.”

Club spokesman John Thurlow said the domain was the best training field in Whanganui.

The club, which does not currently operate any teams, installed the lights around the turn of the century.

He said the number of children playing rugby had dropped in recent years.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s football, hockey or rugby, if a group can use what we created to do something positive for young people particularly, that can’t be all bad, can it?” Thurlow said.

“Everything is there and [the trust] don’t have to start from scratch.

“It never, ever gets wet because it’s all pumice.”

Whanganui District Council property and open spaces general manager Sarah O'Hagan. Photo / Bevan Conley

The domain has room for two full football fields.

Trust chair Russell Eades said work on the project was still ongoing.

“One of the things we could look at is buying goal posts that have football bottoms and rugby tops,” he said.

“It could be a multi-sport venue with two fields to play rugby league or football or whatever you want.

“There could be many more users than just football.”

Sport Whanganui installed Airtime basketball hoops at the Castlecliff Domain in 2022, which led to the whole court being repainted through a community-led initiative from Progress Castlecliff.

O’Hagan said a half court would be installed “imminently” at the orchard end of the domain towards Maketu St.

“It sounds like the concrete pad will go down in the next month or so.

“Then, we’ll have the basketball facility and the football happening in what is a bit of a dead space at the moment.”

Sport Whanganui’s Jodie Brunger said the hoops were already ready to go.

“The community was pretty unanimous about having some more things to do on the park,” she said.

“We are working with council to get the pad in and to get some line markings and maybe some artwork on it, as we’ve done at Castlecliff.

“That [Castlecliff Domain] has been superb. The way the community has got behind the developments is amazing.”

The Wanganui and Old Boys Rugby Football Club installed the domain's lights at the turn of the century. Photo / Bevan Conley

Brunger said she hoped Williams Domain would also have a Play Station at some point.

The station is a stainless-steel box that stores equipment such as basketballs, rugby balls and footballs that can be borrowed for casual games.

One is already in operation at Castlecliff.

Central Football chief operations officer Donald Piper said vehicles did not “do nice things” to the domain grass.

“This [football fields] isn’t a ‘nice-to-have’, we need it for the growth of football in Whanganui.

“Across juniors and seniors, we are out of space. Wembley Park is amazing - a one stop shop for all - but the football community has now outgrown the space.”

Training under lights would “ease the load”, he said.

“In the daytime, two football fields would take care of overflow for senior or youth games.

“We want to get as many participants playing as possible.”

Piper said the the trust had already done a lot of planning for the domain.

“Most codes go cap in hand but in this instance, there is real collaboration and partnership to get something over the line.”

He was fully supportive of adding a basketball court to the space.

“I’m all for community usage and multi usage.

“There is limited activation space in most towns so you have to maximise opportunities where you can.”

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.