MOREE residents are encouraged to attend the Moree Plains Shire council meeting tomorrow, Thursday, November 20, where a Planning and Development report about Taylor Oval will be tabled.
The meeting will start at 2pm at council chambers in the Max Centre.
Taylor Oval is Council’s preferred site for a 50-metre swimming pool complex. Many Moree residents are against the development.
A report was presented to the Ordinary Meeting of Council on July 17, advising the Feasibility Study undertaken by Public Works NSW concluded the Taylor Oval site is “technically suitable for a pool facility”.
The report says the site may be permissible as development without consent via a Review of Environmental Factors in accordance with sections 5.5 and 5.7 of the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act.
Council may require an Aboriginal Heritage Impact Permit as Taylor Oval is registered as an Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System listing – AHIMS 10-3-0067 – which was registered in June, 2007.
AHIMS 10-3-0067 is based around a newspaper report in the Moree Gwydir Examiner and General Advertiser, dated Saturday, August 8, 1903, that details the discovery of two bodies at a site that is now believed to be Taylor Oval.
Under the sub-heading ‘Gruesome Discovery’, the snippet reads: “While two men were excavating soil on the block of land joining the Moree Cricket Ground, they came on a grave containing the remains of two bodies. The grave was about three-feet deep, and the bodies had been covered with an oppossum rug and bark”.
Further enquires found the remains were those of an Aboriginal man and his wife, who were buried at the site 40 years earlier.
“The bones were gathered in a bag and removed for re-interment,” the report concluded.
The oval, originally gazetted in 1892, was officially named Taylor Oval in 1953, in recognition of sports administrator Teddy Taylor and his long association with sporting clubs in Moree.
Historic Taylor Oval is Moree Plains Shire Council’s preferred site for a 50m swimming pool complex.
At the time of the July 17 council meeting, Council submitted a request to Heritage NSW for review of the ‘active’ site listing of Taylor Oval.
The review request was submitted based on advice from Heritage NSW, which has since requested Council undertake “limited consultation with the original site card nominations, knowledge holders or broader interested Aboriginal parties, to assist Heritage NSW in the review of the site card status”.
The report says Council will engage an independent consultant to undertake the consultation requested by Heritage NSW.
Moree residents are encouraged to attend the November 20 Moree Plains Shire Council meeting.
MPSC Ordinary Council Meeting
When: Thursday, November 20, 2025
Where: Max Centre Council Chambers
Time: 2pm
The pool at Taylor Oval is the most ridiculous proposal this council has put forward.All the ancillary equipment ,the slide,the hot water the lifeguards and other staff are already at the MAAC site.Why duplicate this because of a leak.Leaks can be fixed .
I would like to see it as an Olympic park, 100m pool, diving board, running track around it, all the olympic training facilities, schools can use it, Host group athletic regional competitions.