City Councillor unveils new plan for water playground in Nerang parklands

New plans have been unveiled for a “wet play playground” at a popular Gold Coast parklands area, complete with slides and forts.

A Gold Coast park will have a state of the art water playground by summer next year.

The new park has now been announced for Country Paradise Parklands at Nerang, a popular area already featuring community gardens and a number of service programs.

Division 5 Councillor Peter Young unveiled the plans for the play area yesterday afternoon, calling them a mixture of “nature-play playground” and “wet-play park”.

“We’re looking at slides, forts, splashing play elements along a dry creek bed that has a focus on low use of water, no need for big maintenance costs or lifeguards,” he said.

The tentative plans for the new parklands area. Photo: Facebook

“(There will be) accessibility for kids with disability problems.”

The park was previously planned for Bischof Park for a price of $1.3 million, but the location was changed following community feedback over parking concerns.

“It’s taken a long time because we’ve been looking at various parks and they’re all constrained, we’ve had problems with parking or provision of sewerage,” Cr Young said.

“(The cost) could well be higher now … the budget is likely to increase now that it’s going to be in Country Paradise.

“It’s been a really careful process to work with … the group who manage the parklands.”

Rescue service Healing Hooves, which also offers therapy to people with disabilities, operates out of the same parklands area.

Vice president and overall manager Marianne Whalan said while she had been hesitant at first, she was “all for” the development.

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“Initially it was a bit of hesitation for us because it’s such an amazing parkland and you worry about additional people coming in,” she said.

“But we have a lot of people that come with disabilities and I’m 100 per cent certain that it’s something people of all abilities can get something out of.

“It’s not something Nerang has and it’s something we’ve wanted for a long time, so it benefits us in the sense of offering respite for the kids that visit us.”