Twin View Turf Resurfaces Gallas Fox Park
For the Roma Echidnas Rugby Union Club, Gallas Fox Park is more than just a playing field. It is the heart of rugby in the Maranoa region. A venue that has hosted generations of players, drawn crowds from across southwest Queensland and played a vital role in the town’s sporting culture.
In 2024, the club took a major step toward securing the future of the game in Roma by undertaking a complete resurfacing of the main field and training area. Working alongside Twin View Turf, Maranoa Regional Council, and a dedicated group of volunteers, the Echidnas transformed the surface into a modern, resilient rugby field capable of hosting major events and supporting the club’s growing participation base.
The project combined careful engineering, innovative turf selection and strong community collaboration to overcome the unique challenges of building a high-quality sporting surface in remote regional Queensland.
Designing Drainage for a Flat Landscape
One of the biggest challenges facing the project team was the natural topography of the site.
Gallas Fox Park sits on extremely flat ground, meaning there are no natural low points or existing stormwater services available to easily drain the field. In many sports field projects, drainage systems simply outlet into nearby stormwater infrastructure, but at Roma this option didn’t exist.
The first step was to take a detailed survey of the field surface. From this data, a design was developed that carefully balanced surface runoff and subsurface drainage, ensuring water could move effectively across and through the soil profile without creating uneven playing conditions.
Designing the correct fall across such a flat surface required precision. The finished field needed to shed water efficiently while still appearing visually level and providing consistent footing for players.
Once the design was finalised, construction work began.
Rebuilding the Field from the Ground Up
The first stage of construction involved tilling the surface, breaking up the existing soil profile and removing compaction that had built up over years of use. This process helped blend the soil layers into a more uniform base for the new root zone.
Following this, the field underwent laser grading, a highly accurate method of reshaping the ground to match the planned finished surface levels. This process required over 1500m2 of soil to be moved by laser-controlled equipment. This ensured the field slopes were precise, allowing water to move correctly across the surface.
With the ground profile prepared, the next step was installing the drainage infrastructure.
Installing Subsurface Drainage
A new subsurface drainage system was installed across the entire field at 7.5-metre spacing, forming a network designed to quickly remove surface water and excess moisture from the turf root zone. There was over 2.6km of draincoil and PVC pipe installed to complete the drainage system on this project.
Effective drainage is critical for rugby fields, where repeated tackles, scrums and heavy foot traffic can quickly damage a saturated surface. By allowing water to move away from the playing surface quickly, the drainage system helps maintain a firm, stable field that can recover more quickly between games.
The drainage network was carefully integrated into the reshaped soil profile, ensuring it would function effectively despite the flat conditions of the site.
Building the Growing Medium
With the drainage system in place, attention turned to creating the growing medium that would support the turf.
More than 1,250 tonnes of sand growing medium were imported to the site and blended with soil amendments and organic materials. This mixture provides an ideal root zone for sports turf, balancing excellent drainage with the ability to retain nutrients and moisture.
Once spread across the field, the sand profile was laser levelled once again to achieve the final playing surface levels. This carefully constructed base created a stable and free-draining platform ready for turf installation.
Turf Installation Becomes a Community Effort
Installing the turf was one of the most rewarding stages of the project and a clear demonstration of Roma’s strong community spirit.
Over 9,500 square metres of washed TifTuf Hybrid Bermuda turf was laid across the main field over three days.
The installation brought together Maranoa Regional Council staff, Roma Echidnas players and club volunteers, all working together to roll out pallets of turf across the field.
Twin View Turf’s Trent Hobson assisted with laser levelling and ensured pallets were positioned correctly to keep the installation running smoothly. The quality of the turf itself was immediately evident. Despite being harvested only days earlier, the turf arrived with a thick, healthy and vibrant root system, with roots already extending well beyond 60 millimetres. This strong root development helped the grass establish quickly once laid.
Seeing the field take shape over just a few days was a proud moment for everyone involved.
Establishing the Training Field
While the main field was fully turfed, the adjacent training field was established using a different method. On 23 December, the training field was planted using TifTuf stolons, allowing the grass to spread naturally across the prepared soil surface.
The two fields were planted several weeks apart to ensure the irrigation system could maintain adequate watering during the extreme summer heat of Central Queensland. This staggered approach helped protect the young turf and allowed both surfaces to establish successfully.
Choosing Turf for Roma’s Conditions
Selecting the right grass variety was one of the most important decisions in the project. Roma’s irrigation water presents a significant challenge. Testing has shown very alkaline water with pH levels between 9.5 and 9.9, which can create long-term soil health problems and place stress on many turf species.
To ensure the new field would perform under these conditions, TifTuf Hybrid Bermuda grass was trialled on site six months before construction began. Three small areas were planted across the field and monitored throughout the winter playing season.
The results were impressive. TifTuf proved capable of handling Roma’s extreme winter conditions, including numerous frosts and temperatures well below 0°C. It also demonstrated excellent tolerance to the alkaline irrigation water.
Another key benefit is TifTuf’s exceptional drought tolerance, meaning the field requires less irrigation overall. Using less water helps reduce the amount of alkaline irrigation entering the soil, limiting the gradual increase in soil pH over time.
Delivering the Project Within Budget
Like many regional sporting organisations, the Roma Echidnas needed to complete the project within a limited budget. The resurfacing was supported by Federal Government funding through the Women in Sport grants program, helping improve facilities and encourage broader participation in rugby.
To keep costs manageable, both the club and Maranoa Regional Council undertook portions of the project themselves, contributing labour and equipment wherever possible. This cooperative approach ensured the resurfacing could be completed without compromising the quality of the final field.
A Successful First Test
The newly resurfaced field faced its first major test just eight weeks after the turf was installed, when Gallas Fox Park hosted the Santos Roma Rugby 7’s tournament. The event featured more than 13 hours of rugby across two days, including warm-ups, training sessions and competitive matches.
Despite the heavy schedule, the new surface performed exceptionally well, providing a stable and high-quality playing field throughout the tournament.
For Trent Hobson of Twin View Turf, the whole project was a rewarding experience.
“Working with the rugby club and seeing the volunteers chip in to make the project happen was incredibly satisfying,” he said. “Hearing the feedback after the Rugby 7’s made all the hard work worthwhile.”
The success of the resurfacing has already drawn attention from the wider rugby community. Representatives from Queensland Rugby Union have visited Gallas Fox Park and were highly impressed with the quality of the playing surface. Their visit has helped pave the way for Roma to host another major event later this year. In September, the town will welcome the Santos Festival of Rugby, where the Queensland Reds are scheduled to play a match in Roma.
For the Roma Echidnas and the wider community, the resurfacing of Gallas Fox Park represents more than just a new field. It is an investment in the future of rugby in regional Queensland, supporting players, attracting major events and strengthening the local sporting community.
Through careful planning, technical expertise and a remarkable volunteer effort, Roma now has a rugby field ready to host the next generation.
