Balmain Tigers Leagues Club
History
Balmain Tigers Rugby League Football Club was built in 1957 and closed on 28 March 2010, after receiving a notice to vacate the site to make way for the proposed Rozelle Village development. In 2020, it was approved for redevelopment, so will be knocked down soon. The Balmain Tigers are a rugby league club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain. Not much else to say for history. More info can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balmain_Tigers
The Explore
The suburb is located in a dense part of Sydney. Chris and I were nervous about going in at first, because it's so public-facing, but we knew many others that have been before us so we decided to stop being pussies and went in. We parked at the back on the building, which still has an actively-used car park. We weren't sure how the others were getting in, but because we're great climbers, we just climbed the tall wooden fence. The place was trashed - graffiti everywhere, electric cords pulled from the ceiling, parts of the floors caving in. Despite that, we thought the place had a charm, with all the graffiti making for cool photography. We explored the three floors, having to use a torch because the place was so dark inside. It was kind of scary in some places because of the dark corridors (I watch way too many horror movies...bad mix with urbex). We thought we were alone, but there were several teenagers downstairs, riding the bikes around. All in all - no issues. There was no security on site and we didn't come across any trouble. Lots of climbing opportunities. Not sure if the place will be around for much longer as there are plans for redevelopment. Luckily, Rozelle Asylum is not far from here and is a worthwhile explore. Unfortunately I don't have photos from that one because we went may years ago now
Difficulty: Easy.
