Ten city sites were tested. Most of them put an AFL ground closer to Darwin's CBD than the MCG is to Federation Square.
The alternative concept AFLNT released in 2021, with a full lattice canopy. · Concept design released by AFL Northern Territory
Our pick: Garramilla Boulevard
In August 2022 Cox Architecture, the practice behind Optus Stadium and the Adelaide Oval redevelopment, test-fitted an MCG-sized oval across ten sites in Darwin for Stadiums North Australia. Site A, the old Shell tank site on the corner of Garramilla Boulevard and McMinn Street, is the one we'd build on: 69,500 square metres of industrial land with no homes to move and no sacred site on the footprint, a dozen bus routes at the door, and the university campus and Frogshollow Park beside it. For scale, GMHBA Stadium in Geelong sits on about 70,000 square metres and holds 26,000.
The most spectacular site in the study is Site C, the old Federal tank farm above Stokes Hill Wharf, on the harbour beside the Convention Centre and the Waterfront. But Stokes Hill is a registered Larrakia sacred site. A stadium there could only happen with the support of the Larrakia people, and that is their decision to make. Garramilla Boulevard doesn't depend on it.
AFLNT put a design team together in 2021 and produced two concepts for a city stadium. The team: Studio Nield under Lawrence Neild, former Chief Architect of the Northern Territory and a master planner on the Sydney Olympics, Stadium Australia and Marvel Stadium, working with Troppo Architects, Max Irvine Structural Engineers, Rider Levett Bucknall, Taylor Cullity Lethlean, BVN Architects and PwC. Every one of them worked without charging a fee.
Between 20,000 and 25,000. AFLNT's 2021 concept was reported at 25,000 seats; the 2024 business case discusses a multi-purpose venue of about 20,000. The Cox study deliberately puts no seat number on any site. It tests whether an MCG-sized playing surface plus a 40-metre allowance for seating physically fits, which at Site A it does. For context, the venues Cox benchmarked against range from Manuka Oval at 16,000 to UTAS Stadium at 21,000 and GMHBA at 26,000. Whatever the final number, it is roughly double TIO Stadium's 12,500.
The 2021 concept was costed at $300m. By the time PwC modelled it in the 2024 business case, a city stadium came in at $700m–$735m, buildable within seven to ten years. The same document also found TIO Stadium could be upgraded instead. Cheaper, and a real option, but it leaves the venue eleven kilometres from the city and its bars, restaurants and hotels.
This is the part that separates Site A from most stadium projects in this country. There is no new rail line, no new bridge, no billion-dollar access road, because the site is already on the edge of the city. Cavenagh Street is about 600 metres away, under ten minutes on foot, and Smith Street Mall about thirteen. For comparison, it's eighteen minutes from the MCG to Federation Square. A dozen bus routes already stop at the site, and the existing road network has multiple approaches, which is what lets you separate crowds arriving from trucks servicing the venue. Patrons can walk into town after the game and stay there, instead of driving eleven kilometres back from Marrara.
Territory football is played in the wet, from October to March. The AFL season is the other half of the year, which in Darwin is the dry: June, July and August average under 5mm of rain a month between them, with ten hours of sunshine a day. The weather page has the rest of the numbers.
Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis has questioned the whole idea: "My personal opinion is we've got a very good stadium in Marrara. Why not upgrade Marrara instead of building another stadium and making Marrara a ghost area?" It's a fair question. Every city that has moved its ground into town gives the same answer: a CBD stadium is an asset on 40 nights a year. Marrara is a car park eleven kilometres out.
The two concepts AFLNT released, and the view from inside.
The open concept: the city, Frances Bay and the marina behind it, and a ground you can walk to from the hotels.
Concept design released by AFL Northern Territory
The alternative concept AFLNT released in 2021, with a full lattice canopy.
Concept design released by AFL Northern Territory
Inside, looking across a full house — an AFL ground in the middle of Darwin.
Concept design released by AFL Northern Territory
WHERE SHOULD IT GO?
Ten sites were assessed for a Darwin stadium. Which one would you back? One vote per supporter, and you can change it any time. Only the tally is shown.
TEN SITES, ONE ANSWER
Cox Architecture test-fitted an MCG-sized oval across every plausible site in Darwin. The circles are drawn to each site's real area. Walking times are measured, not the study's; for comparison, the MCG to Federation Square is eighteen minutes.
A
Garramilla Boulevard — Shell tank site
69,500 m²Our pick
13 min walk to Smith Street Mall
City fringe, under ten minutes' walk to Cavenagh Street — closer than the MCG is to Federation Square — with the university campus and Frogshollow Park beside it. Served by a dozen bus routes. Old industrial land, so no homes to move, and no sacred site on the footprint.
B
Gardens Oval
65,100 m²
32 min walk to Smith Street Mall
An existing sporting ground close to the city and Mindil Beach, but it is in use, and building here takes a much-loved community venue out of the system.
C
Stokes Hill tank farm
76,200 m²
17 min walk to Smith Street Mall
The old Federal fuel tanks above Stokes Hill Wharf, between the Convention Centre, the Waterfront and the harbour. Four minutes' walk to the jetty, seventeen to Smith Street Mall, with the Convention Centre and Kitchener Drive buses at the door. Stokes Hill itself is a registered Larrakia sacred site, and the Larrakia Cultural Centre is being built next door — this site is only ever built with the Larrakia.
D
Stokes Hill tank farm (northern part only)
42,300 m²
12 min walk to Smith Street Mall
The tank farm with the sacred site left out. That cuts the land almost in half, and an MCG-sized oval no longer fits inside the boundary — it spills onto Mavie Street and Frances Bay Drive.
E
Waterfront (Anchorage Court)
59,900 m²
11 min walk to Smith Street Mall
The undeveloped land along Anchorage Court and Kitchener Drive, below Government House and beside the Fort Hill Wharf cruise terminal.
F
The Esplanade
29,700 m²No AFL oval
8 min walk to Smith Street Mall
Too small: the oval spills well beyond the site, and would sit on the Darwin Cenotaph war memorial.
G
Sea Swift freight yard
90,100 m²
12 min walk to Smith Street Mall
Plenty of room, but working port land and further from the city's hospitality.
H
Old Darwin Hospital
56,300 m²No AFL oval
29 min walk to Smith Street Mall
Tested as an indoor arena site rather than an oval.
J
Mindil Market North
94,600 m²
36 min walk to Smith Street Mall
The largest site of all, next to Mindil Beach — and next to the market and casino that already own that ground on a Thursday night.
K
One Mile Dam
48,800 m²
25 min walk to Smith Street Mall
A former fuel terminal beside the Railway Dam town camp. An oval roughly fits, with soil contamination and a slope towards Frances Bay to deal with.
Areas from the Darwin City Sports Plan, Cox Architecture for Stadiums North Australia, August 2022. Positions placed from the study's site plans. Walking times are OpenStreetMap walking routes from the middle of each site to the nearer end of Smith Street Mall, at 5 km/h. The study's own evaluation matrix is marked work in progress and unscored — the pick is ours.
Photo: Concept design released by AFL Northern Territory · source
