Surf park, coastal boardwalk, pool redevelopment among projects part of Darwin Council vision
A $40 MILLION man-made surf facility at Vesteys Beach is one of six projects envisioned to shape Darwin’s future despite the uncertainty of the global coronavirus pandemic, Darwin Council has revealed.
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A $40 MILLION man-made surf facility at Vesteys Beach is one of six projects envisioned to shape Darwin’s future despite the uncertainty of the global coronavirus pandemic, Darwin Council has revealed.
The Vesteys Beach development comes as the centrepiece of Darwin Council’s project prospectus and would include a surf-club house, a wave pool, outdoor eateries and cafes and a child-friendly landscape.
The council has indicated construction on the project could begin in 2022 and would take two years to complete.
Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis said the prospectus, which has been developed behind closed doors since February, couldn’t be held back by coronavirus and he expected Darwin to become a tourism hotspot when borders reopened.
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“Darwin should grow and it will grow, you can’t keep Darwin the way it was in the ’50s and ’60s and then complain when people leave and go down south,” he said.
“When you open the border, people in Melbourne, Sydney and down south will be out of their brains, and guess what they’ll want to do? They’ll want to travel. Where will they go? Somewhere they can go out, warm, nice, the rumours are already out down there that we haven’t been hit by the virus.”
The prospectus also includes a boardwalk proposed from Doctors Gully to the Waterfront, the redevelopment of the Casuarina pool, rollout of the smart city project to the northern suburbs and offering commercial opportunities for council assets such as parking, management and street lights as well as renewable energy hubs, with projects costing.
Mr Vatskalis said the projects weren’t set in stone, with developers given the opportunity to work to a blank card and pitch their own designs.
“These are concepts, we are asking people to come to us and say ‘we would like to do this’,” he said.
“We’re just throwing an idea out there and seeing who bites and who comes and who says ‘I can’t do that idea better but I can do it differently’.”
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Funding for each project is yet to be determined, with the council’s commitment to vary depending on developer’s pitches, with the council working with a $53 million capital budget each year.
It could see the council provide land for a project, funding, control ownership or help developers through the process depending on proposals.
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