Today's opening of the Tuncurry Water Park
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Welcome to this fabulous facility which we're opening officially today.
00:03 The Tungurri Water Playground idea came about in 2021
00:07 when we did a community consultation on the future use of the former pool.
00:11 So for those who may or may not remember, the Tungurri swimming pool was opened
00:15 and constructed in the 1970s and by the early 2000s probably
00:21 beginning to start the end of its useful life. It wasn't really feasible to
00:24 continue to run it, it was becoming quite expensive. So we went out to the community
00:29 and we asked them what did they want to see. Following the community consultation
00:34 the council decided to turn this area, Farsiye Park, into a fun and exciting
00:38 space for residents and tourists alike. I'd like to thank the elected body at the
00:42 time for taking that decision. Probably wasn't the most confident thing.
00:45 There was a local people of pool lovers and there always is
00:50 and we thank them. Hopefully they could use the fun park behind us
00:53 because this is a much better use of space. The redevelopment is going to take a
00:57 several stages over a number of years. So we've got the water playground
01:01 and new amenities which you see before you.
01:04 In the future there will be
01:07 an educational cycleway where you stop, learn and listen.
01:11 Barbecue and picnic facilities, green spaces and car parking.
01:15 So we're here officially to open stage one, being the amenities
01:18 and the water playground. We've had a bit of a soft opening
01:22 and as you can see this is part of the soft opening that's getting well
01:24 utilised. When we were planning and designing the
01:28 facility we got a fair bit of community feedback.
01:31 During the planning phase what the community told us was
01:34 the city needs to be free and utilised all year round.
01:38 Needs to be accessible for all abilities and promote active
01:42 healthy lifestyle. Bring residents and visitors to Tunkurri
01:46 alike which will boost the local economy.
01:50 Encourage socialisation of families and children.
01:53 Improving a sense of community and well-being. During the water playground
01:58 and community engagement sessions the community told us that what was
02:00 important was having a slide that goes rather quick but not too quick.
02:05 A bucket, a splash pad, water cannons, wheelchair access and accessible
02:11 change rooms to meet people's voice.
02:14 It's been really really popular, like really popular.
02:18 Even when it's not even hot it's packed. So from that
02:21 I like to just probably I'm safe to say that I'm confident that the community
02:25 are well pleased with what we've delivered so thank you. It's a great day to be
02:29 in Tunkurri and Foster. The sun's shining, the water's
02:33 blue, the sky's blue, kids are screaming and happy
02:37 all because of this water sports playground.
02:41 Over at the rock pool there's another huge playground
02:44 which was built with the assistance of similar amounts of
02:48 federal funds. Playgrounds in a tourism town are great for the economy.
02:55 Kids love it, kids bring their parents with them.
03:00 Happy parents, they are return customers. I have got children who are now adults
03:06 who still talk about a hotel we stayed at up north of
03:12 the Gold Coast and had the best water playground and slippery dip
03:17 that was with Adrian, was fast and was long and they loved it. So we
03:22 went back there two more times. So the playgrounds are really great. It's
03:26 also good for a lot of our elderly who have
03:31 children and grandchildren. So they love it when their grandkids
03:35 come visit them and again that's another bit of
03:38 the tourism visitor experience economy. This is 101 essential infrastructure.
03:45 I'd like to congratulate the design team up the back
03:48 and delivery team and for everyone that worked on it.
03:52 It's very functional, it's a big improvement on what was there before.
03:58 What's the water park like? Good. What do you like the best?
04:10 The fly. The fly. I like the tiny fish.
04:16 Yeah!
04:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]