Taylor Oval has been a cornerstone of the Moree community for generations. 

Recently, Moree Plains Shire Council announced a plan to build a 50m pool complex on Taylor Oval. 

This petition asks council to abandon the proposal and build a 50m pool at the original site at Moree Artesian Aquatic Centre. 

 A community consultation process was initiated by council to gather insights and collective viewpoints but an online survey initiated by Moree Plains Shire Council is missing a vital question: Does the Moree community want a 50m pool at Taylor Oval?

Moree Plains Shire Council is hellbent on constructing the complex at Taylor Oval, which currently has a DECC Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System (site #10-3-0067) listing.

In effect, if the development goes ahead, Moree will have two swimming pool complexes: artesian pools on one side of town, and a cold pool complex on the other side. This is sheer madness.

If television series, Yes, Prime Minister, was still in production, this would make a perfect episode – if producers believed the storyline.

The sad aspect of this controversy is that Moree Plains Shire Council is not listening to residents, business owners and ratepayers, who clearly do not want the complex built at Taylor Oval.

They want it where it belongs, in its original site.

There is also concerns parts of the Taylor Oval site was once known as Pioneer Cemetery. It is established two Aboriginals, believed to be man and wife, were exhumed from the site in 1903 and buried elsewhere. This is fact.

Sisters Maud and Fanny Kirkby, daughters of district pioneers Frederick and Charlotte Kirkby, were also buried at the Taylor Oval site in 1875. The bodies of the sisters, who drowned in the nearby Mehi River, were disinterred in 1943 and taken to Moree Cemetery.

Taylor Oval is also registered as an indigenous burial site on the DECC Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System (site #10-3-0067).

In addition, Moree Plains Shire Council has engaged OzArk Environment & Heritage NSW to undertake Aboriginal consultation and archaeological investigations associated with Taylor Oval.

This is the same company appointed by Woolworths to investigate Taylor Oval, when plans were put on the table about 20 years ago to build a Big W shopping complex on the site.

Apart from AHIMS listing, Taylor Oval is also historically significant as a sporting venue, and should be returned to the Moree public as a sporting venue.

Don Bradman played cricket at Taylor Oval in 1929 and 31 years later, Moree Rugby League Football Club signed Australian Test coach Clive Churchill for seven weeks to coach the Moree squad with Ernie Gilligan.

The previous year, Churchill coached the Australian Kangaroos, who toured England and France.

In 1960, Moree won the grand-final against Armidale and the following year Churchill was re-signed to what would be his last captain-coach position.

Please sign this petition against a 50m pool complex at Taylor Oval.