Wollongong City Council has flagged a decade-long, multi-million dollar overhaul for Beaton Park, revealing plans for four new pools, kids’ water play areas and water slides, a wellness centre and a gym big enough for 1000 new members.
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The upgrades to the ageing leisure centre would provide a new aquatic program for seniors – including a sauna, spa, warm water exercise pool and water therapy area – as well as a water play area for kids, and would include more commercial opportunities like a cafe, retail space and improved sports medicine facilities.
The major future redevelopment, allowing the Beaton Park precinct to become a “regional sports centre of excellence”, would also include upgrades and add-on for the tennis courts and outdoor playing fields –including a full size football pitch – and a bigger grandstand at the athletics track.
A longer term plan would relocate the Snake Pit and build four new indoor courts in a stadium at the leisure centre site, where a retractable seating area would allow the stadium to host major indoor sports events.
The council has also flagged a new playground and picnic area for the open space around Beaton Park, including an “active youth and children’s area” with a skate park or BMX track, a network of cycle and walking paths and a new traffic plan and major road crossing to Wiseman’s Park. This neighbouring park would be included in the precinct overhaul, benefiting from a nature trail and an upgrade for the playground and pavilion.
These extensive plans are included in a “needs assessment” of Beaton Park. Some of the minor changes could be set in motion from the beginning of next year, council staff said, with longer term measures stretching out to 2026.
The needs assessment and accompanying strategy will be debated at next week’s council meeting. Staff have recommended councillors vote to reclassify some areas of community land within the Beaton Park precinct as “operational” to allow for more commercial opportunities, and investigate how to acquire a portion of land owned by the Department of Defence dividing the site.
They said a redeveloped Beaton Park precinct would respond to an increase in high-density buildings in the CBD, which will bring a population influx and need for more open space and recreation facilities.
The plans are not costed, however staff identified two state and federal funding schemes which could be worth up to $20 million, noting the council would have to at least match this amount to be successful in applying for the grants.
History of Beaton Park
Beaton Park was first formed as a park in 1951, when the council joined two private blocks of land. Tennis courts were built in 1957, and the four court Snake Pit was built in 1964.
Due to demand for more sports and recreation facilities, the park was further expanded by 2.89 hectares in 1973, with the council acquiring more land. It was expanded again in 1978.
The leisure centre was built in 1981, after the land it is built on was bought from the Department of Defence. The heated pool was added in 1983 – and covered over in 1986 – and the athletics track came ten years later in 1993.
The grandstand was built in 2001, and in 2005 the children’s playgrounds at Beaton Park and Wiseman’s Park were built. They are due for renewal in 2020.
