Mars trial aims to keep sports grounds green and healthy

A HIVE of development activity over the past 12 months, Mars Stadium has also become home to a groundbreaking trial aimed at keeping the city’s sports fields greener, stronger and game-ready all year round.

The City of Ballarat has teamed up with Bartlett Manufacturing to trial locally designed and developed TurfRise growth covers at Mars Stadium, which will later this month host a trio of AFL pre-season matches involving Richmond, Melbourne, Collingwood, North Melbourne, Essendon and St Kilda.

The covers are designed to help grass grow faster during colder months by warming the soil and protecting turf from heavy foot traffic and low sunlight.

They are specially engineered to help groundskeepers, turf managers and professional landscapers get the most out of their grass during the cooler months.

Trialled over winter, the covers have already delivered strong results, improving turf recovery at Mars Stadium while providing valuable real-world data to refine the product.

In a boost for Bartlett Manufacturing and Ballarat, the product has since garnered international interest.

“We saw an opportunity a few years back to create a super strong product that performed better than the incumbent product that is available to the market,” Bartlett Manufacturing’s business development general manager Nick Thurlbeck said.

Boasting high-quality turf with its sand-based profile of Santa Ana couch grass and turf type perennial ryegrass, Mars Stadium was considered the “perfect” place for the trial, according to Thurlbeck.

He added that working with local government had accelerated the process and kept the benefits in Ballarat.

“In my view, how good is it when business can work with local government to get connected and use the resources that local government has to fast-track trials,” Thurlbeck said.

“The ability for Bartlett to do that locally and keep it in Ballarat was awesome. It’s helped take this product to one that is about to be exported. It’s exciting.”

The trial has provided a valuable hands-on learning opportunity for the city’s sports grounds team, including sports turf management apprentice Bailey Carroll.

“Bailey has a genuine interest in turf and a bright future in the industry,” his supervisor Jeremy Collier said.

“My intention is to run more trial work with Bartletts and incorporate this with Bailey. We’ll be looking at differences in ground temperature, growth and recovery, and germination potential.”

The sports ground team maintains around 65 fields across the municipality.

Meanwhile, work is progressing on a major upgrade to the stadium. The project, which includes a new 5000-seat grandstand, increasing seating capacity to 10,000, a new southern viewing embankment and extra change rooms, is expected to be finished late this year.