There's not much there now besides a couple of flat, bare acres of dirt dotted with heavy yellow machinery.
But in just over a year's time, this empty plot of land at La Trobe University in Melbourne will be the site of one of the most advanced women's sport facilities in the entire Asia-Pacific region.
Last May, the Victorian government announced the biggest funding grant in the history of Australian football, dedicating just over $100 million — on top of the federal government's $15 million a year earlier — to construct a state-of-the-art Home of Matildas centre in Bundoora, north-east of Melbourne.
The facility will be part of a larger precinct at La Trobe University Sports Park that will also include a home of rugby as well as the offices of Football Victoria, but the real focus of the centre will be women's football, with a number of bespoke quirks and characteristics within and around the facility that are aimed at maximising current and future Matildas players.
Currently, just one-fifth of football grounds across Australia have change-rooms for women, with thousands of potential players turned away due to a lack of available facilities.
It is something Football Australia is planning to address as part of their Legacy '23 project, particularly through the creation of a Female Football Facilities Legacy Fund.
This fund will be distributed to clubs and associations around the country to help them construct and upgrade change-rooms, pitches, lighting and drainage in order to capture the expected boom in female participants during and after the 2023 Women's World Cup, hosted in Australia and New Zealand.
They would do well to consult Football Victoria on exactly how to go about it.
Matthew Green was the senior executive manager of business services at Football Victoria and now runs his own consultancy. After the project was begun by former CEO Peter Filopoulos in 2018 through to 2020, Green has been part of the group that has taken the business case to its near-completion.
Green has also worked for an AFL club and said when he made the switch to football, he realised the world game had fallen behind when it comes to infrastructure management and funding.
"Historically, football hasn't been looked after at the level it should have been looked after," Green told ABC Sport.
"It could have been slightly more sophisticated is bringing the data and analysis to the table to inform decision-making. Just complaining about not having facilities is not enough — that doesn't get you over the hurdle.
"Football has a little way to go in terms of getting to the same level as the AFL, particularly in those connections in the corridors of power and that capacity to influence.
"The big shift for football has been, and will continue to be, driving the evidence and using the demand for the game and the broad base — particularly at grassroots level — to drive decision-making and advocacy.
One of the primary drivers behind the Home of Matildas proposal was the belief that women's football was becoming the biggest growth opportunity for the sport.
The rise of the Matildas on the global stage and ever-increasing participation numbers made a women-focused football facility a no-brainer.
"We've seen an enormous investment in the women's game in recent years, particularly in female-friendly pavilions," Green said.
"If you'd like to talk about demand and where the game is going, women's football is where it is. With the Women's World Cup coming up and the explosion we already see coming in the data, we really believe that message is resonating.
"There's never been any home for the Matildas in any concrete sense. They're one of the most popular teams in the country yet they don't have a place to call their own.
"So we built our business case that justified, in our view, a significant investment really focused on the women's game, with the Matildas at the pinnacle of that."
But it's not just the Matildas who will benefit from this bespoke facility. Women footballers from grassroots through to NPLW and junior youth national team programs will all have access to the centre and its various offerings, too.
According to Football Victoria, this will include:
- five full-sized pitches (including one FIFA-approved show pitch with broadcast capabilities and 1,000-seat grandstand)
- a purpose-built international futsal court
- a 400-square-metre bespoke high-performance gym
- a sports science and high performance research centre
- a Matildas-only central changing-room
- recovery rooms (including plunge pools and an 'endless river' with jet streams for hydrotherapy)
- multiple change-rooms for players and match officials
- an 80-seat auditorium and meeting rooms for coach education and media production
- a players' lounge with study spaces, sleep pods and prayer rooms
- gender-neutral public amenities
- a front-facing lobby cafe that players specifically asked for to mingle with fans and visitors
But dig further into the details and you can see why this facility is so ground-breaking.
As Green says, this is a centre "designed by women and for women", from the configuration of the gym and its equipment to the design of the Matildas-only circular changing-room.
"One is that there's less focus on the power racks and heavy machines, and more on cardio and equipment specifically designed for women. One thing we're conscious of is the proliferation of ACL injuries in women athletes, so we've got particular treadmills that help with prevention and rehabilitation in athletes.
"We've also created a more flexible space where about half the gym will be synthetic grass, with none of the rubber in-fill, which allows the equipment to be moved around. We've got drop-down nets built in to enable kicking drills, and more space for rehab, pilates, stretching and prehab exercises.
"There'll be a space for medicine ball training, a hydration station, a boot room, a flexible 40-by-20-metre preparation space for when it's wet or windy. We've also got a little notch next to the change-room which is a hair-braiding bar.
"The two lead architects on this particular job are women. We particularly selected an architect who not only had women leading the design, but women and the organisation that had extensive experience in building football facilities around the world, particularly the UK and USA.
Aside from the bespoke gym, the Matildas-only locker room is the crown jewel in their new home: a completely circular space that will be the inner-most sanctum for players and select staff.
"Part of the design is it obviously resembles a football, but it's also about equality in that there's no 'best seat' in the dressing room: it's circular, everyone has the same view, everyone is equal in the space," Green said.
"This is not a space where we'll be inviting men's teams. This is for the Matildas only.
"It's at the mid-point of the facility, at its very heart, with a direct walkway through to the two main pitches and all other facilities to maximise the experience for the players.
But it's not just the present and the future that this facility will be honouring; it will also delve into the past to celebrate the history of the Matildas, women's football more generally, and the First Nations community on whose land La Trobe sits.
"We've got a historical committee that we've been seeking feedback from all the way through the process," Green said.
"We definitely want to bring to life the history of the Matildas, the history of football in Victoria, and the connection to the local area.
"We've been in consultation with Wurundjeri elders in the area because we're in a little space right next to Darebin Creek, which has historical and cultural significance to First Nations people here in Victoria.
"There will be a few areas within the facility where we've got static and digital activations that bring these stories to life, so when people walk into the facility, they feel connected to all of those things.
"We've spoken to the Matildas unit, we've spoken to former players, and they're all pretty excited about what this can be.
This part of the facility is intended to be a kind of walking museum, with videos, photos, and memorabilia flowing throughout the centre that visitors can learn from as they move throughout the building, starting with a replica of the Women's World Cup trophy in the entry way.
Further along, footage of current players telling their stories will cycle through digital screens along the main walkway, leading to the outside of the glass-walled gym, which will be covered with a list of Matildas caps, going all the way back to the very first, Julie Dolan, in 1979.
On the adjacent wall will be a chronological history of the Matildas, highlighting names and bringing to life players and moments that have long faded into history.
And wrapping around the Matildas' own change-room will be a changeable display of images, mottos, designs and quotes that current and future Matildas teams will get to decide for themselves, ensuring the space and its stories continue to evolve as the playing group does.
The Home of Matildas, then, is not just a moniker for this new facility: it's a true reflection of the thought and care that has gone into planning every aspect of this space so that current and future women in football can finally feel they are part of a sport that has, for most of its history, kept them on the outer.
"We've really tried to create an amazing, holistic experience for women athletes," Green said.
"We hope to be selected as a team base camp for the Women's World Cup, and we'd love to think the Matildas themselves might be based here.
"In any event, there will be a Matildas friendly farewell game played here before the tournament kicks off.
"It's about creating a feeling. When people walk into this space, they feel that it's elite, and they feel that they belong. They feel that it's theirs."
