James Browne Oval: How a joyful family celebration at a NSW Central Coast footy oval sparked fury from locals

A couple who organised a gender reveal party on a sports field sparked outrage among locals and the local council, leaving their rubbish behind for others to clean up.

The ‘entitled’ hosts and guests left the James Browne Oval in Woy Woy on the NSW Central Coast of New South Wales, draped in bright blue plastic streamers.

An angry resident took a photo of the polluted park and shared it online on a community Facebook page, claiming the trash left behind was harmful to the environment. Yeah.

“To the spoiled, lazy fools who held a gender reveal party at the James Browne Oval last weekend and left a field of plastic streamers for the birds, dogs and eventually the fish to digest,” he wrote.

“Can you please go back and clean up your mess! The level of stupidity is terrifying.”

The hundreds of streamers were spread across a large part of the field, which is used most weekends for football and athletics competitions.

His message sparked anger among fellow residents, who demanded a ban on gender reveal parties on sports fields because of the potential negative consequences for clubs.

“This should be banned in parks and public spaces. Show it in your own garden!”, one local fumed.

Another added: ‘Terrible. Some people just don’t care about the environment.’

A local resident called the organizers’ actions “so disrespectful” that they should have to pay to clean it up themselves.

However, some residents defended the couple, writing that the streamers may not have been made of plastic at all, but a biodegradable substance like rice paper, which breaks down when it comes into contact with water.

The Central Coast City Council admitted that cleaning up the park was a lot of work.

“The council is aware of this issue and has attempted to clean up the debris from this private event, but since the debris also includes confetti, this is proving difficult,” a spokesperson told Yahoo.

‘It is disappointing that some community members behave in this way and ultimately leave the clean-up to others.

‘The costs of cleaning up by the municipality are ultimately borne by all taxpayers.’

James Browne Oval (pictured) in Woy Woy is used for many local sports at weekends

Outraged local residents questioned whether events such as gender reveal parties (stock photo) should be allowed on sports fields at all due to the impact on the terrain and the environment.

The council reminded residents to respect all parks and sports fields, which means not leaving any litter behind and checking that it is permitted to hold private events in these places.

Environmentalist Mark Brown called the incident litter.

“People need to be very aware of the particles they release into the environment,” he said.

Cip Hamilton, plastics campaigner at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, added that once plastic enters the environment it stays there forever and can break down into microplastics, which can be deadly to wildlife.