Huge water park with surf waves, water slide rides approved for Dingley Village in Melbourne

The biggest indoor-outdoor water park in the southern hemisphere has been approved in Melbourne’s south east. See renders and video of the next step in the area’s wave of change.

Renders show the planned surf beach pool in action at the recently approved SurfnPlay Aquatic Park by Pellicano.

The biggest indoor water park in the southern hemisphere has been approved for Melbourne’s south east and sparked calls to rename the area the Kingston Coast.

The Old Dandenong Rd, Dingley Village, development will be located about 2km from the future home of the Hawthorn Football Club, and along with a spate of other improvements to the regionisset to transform an area once known for vacant blocks and cow paddocks.

Dingley SurfnPlay Aquatic Park will feature everything from Melbourne’s second surf wave ride to water slides that catapult kids uphill and hi-tech water tunnels where kids can try for high-scores by hitting checkpoints.

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Surf pool joins plans for Dingley Village water park

Delay for Dingley Village’s monster water park

A nod from the state government’s Development Facilitation Program in May ended five years of limbo for the attraction and could have funseekers making a splash as soon as 2027.

The $171m development is also expected to deliver 579 short-term and 120 long-term jobs to the region.

Designed by Melbourne architectural firm Peddle Thorpe, who handled the Melbourne Aquarium and Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, it covers an 18,200sq m interior space and a further 20,000sq m outdoors.

Pellicano managing director Nando Pellicano said they were looking forward to “delivering a new tourism landmark for local and international visitors”.

Renders from 2020 show the new attraction headed to Melbourne’s south east.

Extensive water slides and a lazy river will also feature as part of the project.

“Five years since we first lodged plans with council, we are excited to hear that The Hon Sonya Kilkenny is going to exercise her power to amend the Kingston Planning Scheme, facilitating the approval of SurfnPlay Aqua Park in Dingley Village,” Mr Pellicano said.

First announced in March 2019, it had a surf park component added in 2020, but planning stalled for a number of years as the site was checked for Growling Grass Frogs or other endangered species and its compatibility with a green wedge location was assessed.

The water park was moved to the state government’s Development Facilitation Program in December last year.

Its approval last month requires the developer to plant 1000 indigenous trees to revegetate unused parts of the site, and there will be construction management conditions in place.

Mr Pellicano would not discuss an exact timeline, but has previously indicated he hoped to commence an about two-year construction cycle within a year of planning approval.

The project has been working its way through planning offices since 2019.

Powerful waterjets will let swimmers first slide downhill before shooting upwards.

However, the construction sector has since run into significant challenges and the project has lost the support of Melbourne’s wealthy Zagame family who were forced to pull out as they focused on their hospitality businesses during the lockdown era.

A Victorian Government spokesman this week indicated the state’s excitement over the future attraction.

“Melbourne was the first place in Australia to have a surf park, now there will be a second – injecting millions into the economy, creating hundreds of jobs and an entertainment hub for families across Melbourne’s south east,” they said.

And it’s not the only major drawcard headed to Dingley Village and its surrounds, with the Hawthorn Football Club commencing construction on its future home in the suburb late last year and due for completion in 2025.

The water park development will transform what is currently an empty paddock.

President of the Hawthorn Football Club Andy Gowers inspects the progress at Hawthorn's future club site in Dingley with players Chad Wingard and Conor Nash in December last year. Picture: Mark Stewart.

The 28ha sporting complex will host its AFL and AFLW teams and includes a pavilion and two ovals — one the size of the MCG ground.

City of Kingston councillor Cameron Howe said when he’d grown up the area was known for “vacant blocks and cows in paddocks”.

But with the DFO shopping complex also nearby, and the Dingley Bypass and Mordialloc Freeway boosting access to the area, it was fast becoming a “lifestyle capital” that he felt should be renamed the “Kingston Coast”.

Nearby Carrum and Bonbeach have also been swept up in a tide of investment with $30m in infrastructure added over the past three years and another $40m set aside for works still to come.

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