Melbourne indoor water park to be biggest in southern hemisphere

A $100m water park for Melbourne designed by award-winning architects will boast “lots of firsts” including uphill water slides, a zip lines, and a huge wave pool. Take a sneak peek inside.

A massive water park that will “set a new bar for Australia and the southern hemisphere” is headed for Melbourne’s southeast.

In an Australian first kids will compete for high scores in video-game like water tunnels, glide uphill in specially designed water slides with extra water jets, and even be launched from the sides of towers on zip lines.

Up to four surfers at a time will drop in on a wave on a machine seven times the size of one set up at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre a few years ago.

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A 423m long ‘lazy river’ will float those who’ve had enough adrenaline for the day beneath a giant freshwater aquarium.

And retractable glass walls and bulk heads will seal off the park’s outdoor features for the winter months, allowing it to beat the city’s cooler weather.

The $100 million project, to be named Zagame’s Wild Water Park, spans 18,200sq m inside — the biggest in the southern hemisphere — and 20,000sq m outside.

Extensive interior spaces have been designed to suit visitors young and old.

It will also create 1184 ongoing full-time jobs in the region, with the park itself potentially bringing in up to 600 staff.

An application to build the water park will be lodged with authorities today by Melbourne’s Pellicano and Zagame families.

They have been planning the immense water park for seven years, bringing in award-winning architects Peddle Thorpe who designed the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre and Melbourne Aquarium.

Zagame’s are better known across Melbourne for their hospitality.

Once approved a two-year construction process could have it ready for summer in 2021, according to Pellicano boss Nando Pellicano who hopes it will lure tourists from the Gold Coast.

“We are hoping to make a very big splash,” Mr Pellicano said.

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The Zagame family’s 60 years hospitality experience in Melbourne will also play a part, with food to be another attraction.

“You will want to go here for the food as much as the fun on the rides,” said Robert Zagame.

“We will even have our own vegetable gardens on site.”

Extensive indigenous wetlands will be added to the site.

World-leading Canadian water park specialists WhiteWater West will work in conjunction on the project to implement new technology never before seen in the southern hemisphere — including a team of specialist engineers who will work to remove the chlorine smell from the complex’s air.

“It will set a new bar for water parks in Australia and the southern hemisphere,” said the firm’s Australian boss James Corbett.

“There will be lots of firsts, but we don’t want to give away too much.”

The sprawling water park will effectively double in size over summer.

Zagame's Wild Water Park in Melbourne's Dingley Village will be the biggest indoor water park in the southern hemisphere.

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World-leading safety features are also part of the design, and they expect to make the park open to school excursions.

“We have gone out of our way to really look into all aspects of safety with this design,” Mr Corbett said.

The huge future site of the water park in Dingley Village, about 22km south east of Melbourne’s CBD, has been owned for 30 years by the Pellicano family.

It has remained vacant for most of the time, occasionally used to store excess supplies for some of their industrial projects around the city.