Only half of all playgrounds fixed under Wollongong council's play strategy

Since 2014, Wollongong City Council has renewed or upgraded 78 of 147 playgrounds under their 10-year "play strategy" - which was to overhaul the city's playgrounds by upgrading, replacing, and, in some cases, ripping out lots of equipment.

While council has invested a lot of time and money into the project, there are parks in dire need of refurbishment such as Guest Park in Fairy Meadow which was targeted by fire bugs in 2020 with a fence still surrounding the destroyed equipment, and the soft play surface at Thirroul Park which has quickly degrading to giant craters.

Read more: Wollongong's amazing circus tent that struggles to make money

A spokeswoman for council said they would continue to upgrade existing playgrounds "to support play opportunities", while Guest Park was earmarked for construction in June.

She said Thirroul's surface would also be attended to mid-year with its degradation not a result of being in an area at risk of flooding.

"The soft fall at the playground at Thirroul Beach Reserve has deteriorated from high use, and is not a result of flooding," the council spokeswoman said.

"Our scheduled works to renew the soft fall at Thirroul playground will involve the replacement of the upper wear layer across the whole playground except for the flying fox area. Works are scheduled to take place mid-year, pending weather conditions and should take approximately one to two weeks to complete."

Other new playgrounds council has on the cards to overhaul in 2022 include Central Park Reserve at Haywards Bay (which is now complete), Wongawilli Community Hall, Rae Crescent at Balgownie, Rube Hargrave Park at Clifton, Bulli Beach Reserve, Cawley Park at Russell Vale plus soft fall the under the net climber at Hector Harvey Park in Koonawarra.

The means 60 playgrounds, or 40 per cent of the city's spaces, are still in need of attention under the Play Wollongong Strategy 2014-2024.

Read more: What next for Wollongong Art Gallery after Nazi war crimes bombshell

Originally the strategy had counted the city to have 155 playgrounds in total, though that number has since been revised to 147 as some have been removed entirely while others were part of recreation centres which were not publicly accessible, their spokeswoman said.

"It's a big job to plan, replace and build new playgrounds as every playground location is unique," said Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery.

"There's a lot of work that goes into good playground design. When we plan an upgrade to a playground, we consider important factors such as the amount of land space available, environment conditions, what other playgrounds are nearby and available, as well as access to public transport and parking.

"We also like to shake things up - the playground we've recently opened at Cringila Hills focuses on accessible play for all and has a different feel and colour palate to our other playgrounds.''

The Illawarra Mercury newsroom is funded by our readers. You can subscribe to support our journalism here.