News · Council · Lake Macquarie
Seven years after Myuna Bay closed, the replacement still has no opening date
Myuna Bay Sport and Recreation Centre was closed by the state in April 2019 over the risk of the Eraring ash dam wall failing in an earthquake. A replacement has been promised since January 2022. The NSW Office of Sport's own project page for it now carries a different name, a different site, a construction start of around 2027 that depends on a hospital closing first, and no opening date at all. A notice of motion listed for Lake Macquarie City Council's 24 August meeting asks the minister to supply the dates.
Councils write to ministers all the time and it rarely means much. This one is worth reading because the thing it asks for can be checked in five minutes against the responsible agency's own website, and the answer is that most of it does not exist.
What the motion says
Notice of motion 26NM011, in the name of Councillor Jason Pauling, appears at page 305 of the
agenda for the Ordinary Council Meeting of 24 August 2026. It sets out the closure plainly:
In April 2019, the NSW Government ordered the immediate closure of the centre following
geotechnical advice regarding potential seismic instability associated with the Eraring Power
Station ash dam.
It adds that The closure occurred without prior community consultation and
resulted in the loss of a significant recreational, sporting and youth development asset for the
region.
On the replacement, the motion's complaint is specificity. Despite repeated announcements, it
says, there remains limited publicly available detail regarding timelines, preferred locations,
scope of works, funding allocations or delivery milestones.
The recommendation asks Council to
write to the NSW Minister for Sport, Venues NSW and other agencies for the status of site selection
and feasibility work, the scope and design, anticipated timelines for planning, funding
confirmation, construction and opening, community engagement, and any interim measures, and to
receive a memo summarising the responses.
What the state's own page says
The NSW Office of Sport page that the 2023 demolition announcement pointed to as lake-macquarie-sports-centre is now headed Morisset Sports Facility. On the substance it is candid, and it answers several of the motion's questions in the negative.
The site has moved twice. After the closure, following a proposal from the Member for Lake
Macquarie, Greg Piper, the government agreed to consider a site within the Lake Macquarie State
Conservation Area at Morisset Park, and the Office of Sport began planning and sought approval to
acquire the land from the National Parks and Wildlife Service. After a review and a further
proposal from the same member, it is now working with NSW Health and Property and Development NSW
on transferring a parcel inside the grounds of Morisset Hospital instead. NSW Health has agreed to
that transfer. Of the earlier site the page says: work on a facility within the Lake Macquarie
State Conservation Area will not progress.
On timing, its own frequently asked questions are the answer to the motion. Asked when
construction will start: Construction is anticipated to commence following the closure of the
Morisset Hospital Precinct, estimated to be around 2027.
Asked when the facility will open:
An estimated opening date for the new facility will be identified during the development of the
planning and construction timeline.
Read those two together and the position is that the start depends on a hospital precinct closing, and the finish has not been estimated yet. That is not a delay being concealed. It is a project whose schedule is downstream of another decision, stated openly on a page carrying no dates other than the word 2027.
The seven years, in order
| When | What |
|---|---|
| April 2019 | NSW Government orders the immediate closure of Myuna Bay over the risk of the Eraring ash dam wall failing in major seismic activity |
| January 2022 | A site is announced for a new Lake Macquarie Sports Centre |
| 4 August 2023 | The Office of Sport lodges the development application to demolish Myuna Bay, open for comment until 1 September that year |
| Current page | Renamed Morisset Sports Facility; site moved into the Morisset Hospital grounds; construction anticipated around 2027; no opening date |
| 24 August 2026 | Notice of motion 26NM011 listed, asking the minister for timelines, scope, funding and milestones |
What we do not know
Whether the motion carried. Lake Macquarie publishes minutes after they are confirmed at a later meeting, and none for 24 August was available when this was written, so this story reports what was put to the meeting and not what the meeting decided. We will follow it when the minutes appear. The council's position on the replacement is a matter for the council; the questions the motion asks are ones the state is being asked to answer.
Sources
- Lake Macquarie City Council, agenda for the Ordinary Council Meeting of 24 August 2026 (PDF, 30.4 MB, downloaded and read 31 August 2026): notice of motion 26NM011 at page 305, its account of the April 2019 closure, the quoted passages above, and the full recommendation. The same agenda's order of business is the source for the item numbering.
- NSW Office of Sport, Morisset Sports Facility (read 31 August 2026): the renaming, the move from the Lake Macquarie State Conservation Area to the Morisset Hospital grounds, the agreement of NSW Health to the land transfer, and both quoted answers on construction and opening dates.
- NSW Office of Sport,
Development application for demolition of Myuna Bay Sport and Recreation centre lodged
(published 4 August 2023, read 31 August 2026): the demolition DA and its comment period, the independent review behind the closure, and the January 2022 site announcement.
Methodology. All three documents were read in full at source; the agenda is a 30.4 MB PDF downloaded and converted here rather than read through a summary. This story reports a motion that was listed, not a decision that was made. Minutes for 24 August 2026 were not published at the time of writing, and we checked before saying so. The elapsed period is stated as seven years from April 2019 to August 2026, which is seven years and four months. The two Office of Sport pages describe the earlier site slightly differently, one as land previously part of Morisset Hospital within the State Conservation Area and the other as a site in the State Conservation Area at Morisset Park; we have described each as it is written rather than reconciling them. No individual is the subject of any allegation here: the councillor and the member named are named in their public roles as the author of a public motion and as the source of a site proposal recorded on a government page.
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