Rosewood United's 'Accessible' Loo: A Real Bummer for Wheelchairs and Whiffy for All
Rosewood United Crusaders Soccer Club and River Night, National Disability Sector Advocate
Wendy Bourne MP, Rosewood Untied Junior Soccer players and Andrew Haddock from QCSA bearing smelly drop toilets at Thagoona. Photo By: River Night.
Accessibility and inclusive communities may sound great on paper, but we know that in real world situations, locally, it doesn’t always go to plan.
Our Cofounder and Director River J Night this week had the opportunity to connect with locals and with Wendy Bourne MP to discuss a major space in Ipswich’s community that has so far been left out of Mayor Teresa Harding's recent announcement and commitment of millions to upgrade existing infrastructure in the Ipswich City Council plans, leaving the site to remain after years of requests and promises, inaccessible to people with disability and no change rooms for children, teenagers and adults. While all new homes and developments must comply with basic health standards requiring sewage or septic systems, the Rosewood United Soccer field toilets are the talk of the town, with the smell from the open, drop toilets spreading out widely as they simply have no septic system and as the club reports, they haven’t been emptied in years that we know of.
“While leaving out the Rosewood United Soccer Club fields in Thagoona is an unforgivable oversight, when the park is surrounded by hundreds of millions of dollars in developments, thousands of houses planned, requiring the park to be well prepared, we know the request is right there on the mayor’s desk and agenda and won’t be forgotten”, said Mr Night, National Disability Sector Advocate, today.
"Running Australia’s biggest disability and NDIS related events in history I know the importance of accessible venues and that is why we also host our events at Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre. I look forward to seeing everyone in March 2026 for Queensland’s biggest Disability and NDIS related event at the Brisbane Disability Connection Expo. Find out more here https://developingauscommunities.com.au/brisbane-expo-2026/
“I spoke to our mayor Teresa Harding personally and our local councilors and our Federal Minister Shayne Neumann MP and their genuine commitment did not seem to be spin alone as I am sure they recognised the need to support great facilities for local areas, ensuring access also for those people living with disability.
“The Rosewood United Soccer Club (Crusaders), which is part of Queensland Christian Soccer Association, in Thagoona, is one of the fastest growing clubs in Queensland under the leadership of their President Tammy Crawford. It needs the facilities to be there ready, accessible and at the least meet basic standards.
“We have raised the issue of our facilities, accessibility, toilets and change rooms for many years and have been promised basic upgrades, so we were deeply disappointed and surprised when we saw we had again been left out of Ipswich’s Multimillion dollar plan for the region to improve facilities at clubs that already had amazing disability access and established grounds, said Tammy Crawford, President of Rosewood United Soccer Club.
“I hear lots of support and I have no doubt that when they can commit millions to upgrade sporting and event grounds that already have good facilities they would never leave a site like the Rosewood Untied soccer fields with nothing more than an open, drop toilet where visitors get to see and smell all the poops others have left behind while they use the facilities. The smell wafts across the park and is not a pleasant part of the day. I am thankful we haven’t had any children fall down there yet", said Mr River Night today.
The lack of inclusion of Rosewood United’s soccer park in Thagoona seems to be a very genuine oversight, not being included in the recent announcement and budget for upgrades in Ipswich. It can hardly be called rural with all the development planned and being only a 17-minute drive from the Ipswich town centre.
A great road map to good inclusion is the way forward and you can find the Ipswich City Council Inclusion and Connectedness Program implementation program here
As a national disability advocate, I know full well how important translating planned access and inclusion to real world accessibility is. While the current drop toilet at the Thagoona Park has a dedicated ‘accessible’ toilet it is super hard to open the door, and it sits as an island surrounded by uneven fields, grass, valleys and troughs that make getting to it using a wheelchair almost impossible. This weekend gone the little bit of path that does exist resulted in an elderly lady tripping and falling on her face because the grass and concrete are not level and trips and falls, accessible space and real-world accessibility is simply non-existent.
Wendy Bourne MP has started a petition to encourage council to remember the forgotten club that serves so many and the request for just a little funding to bring it up to scratch and at least to the basic levels comparable to those facilities that already have great access but are receiving millions for upgrades this year.
I know our leaders and the Ipswich City Council will move this forward quickly as the genuine commit I heard from them recently gave me faith. Now it is time for that announcement and real-world commitment to translate into action.
Photo Description: Wendy Bourne MP, Rosewood Untied Junior Soccer players and Andrew Haddock from QCSA bearing smelly drop toilets at Thagoona. Photo By: River Night.
