Playground renewals

As part of the City’s Stage One community consultation for the playground renewals (between Friday 1 September and Monday 2 October 2023), we asked a variety of questions relating to the Park Street Park playground.

These responses, detailed below, formed part of the public Request for Tender, where we asked playground companies to provide multiple options which meet the communities requests (within the available budget).

The playground concepts submitted formed the basis of the Stage Two community consultation, where the community voted on their favourite design. This voting was undertaken in January 2024.

As there wasn't a standout preferred option, and the decision was made to request additional funding and postpone the project.

The budget has now been increased by 10%, and new designs sought from playground companies. The final playground design for Park Street Park will be selected based on community feedback and comments received during community consultation. Those who took part in Stage One community consultation joined the community consultation group. If you use Park Street Park and want to be part of the group, please contact us here before 9 September 2024.

Please see below the results from the first two stages of community consultation.

Community consultation – Stage 1 - results October 2023

The demographic that utilises the space the most within the community for 30 minutes to up to 2 hours, are 0-5 year olds.

We asked “What are children’s favourite element of play?” with climbing and swinging tied in first preference and sliding and pretend/ imaginative play a third and fourth standout preference.

We also asked what the children’s preferred play style was. ‘A focus on natural play elements and textures’ ranked first, with ‘Traditional style of playground with metal/plastic/ timber’ as a close second. This information, along with the available budget was included in the Request for Tender.

Community consultation – Stage 2 – results January 2024

Following on from the Tender, four conforming playgrounds were shortlisted, forming the basis for the Stage Two community consultation undertaken in January 2024, along with a comment section.

As part of this Stage Two community consultation, we received the following comments:

• We need to create something so much more interesting and better for the kids of our community
• Disappointing to see no nature elements
• Limited opportunities for child led/ unstructured play
• Please consider a higher spend allowance for park

The results of the Stage Two community consultation are shown below:

• Option 1: 28.8% (15 votes)
• Option 2: 32.7% (17 votes)
• Option 3: 17.2% (9 votes)
• Option 4: 21.2 (11 votes)

Park Street - Option 1 (January 2024 voting)

Park Street - Option 4 (January voting)

McCallum Avenue Park playground, Daglish

• Has been awarded to Nature Based Play Pty Ltd.
• Works are anticipated to commence 21 May and be completed before the end of June 2024.
• As part of the Citys consultation process we received considerable feedback from the community requesting the City install an open nature based play style playground at McCallum Avenue Park, similar in style to the newly installed Lake Jualbup minor playground (with varied elements of play). McCallum Park is heavily utilised by smaller children, and as such we worked with the playground designers to create an imaginative style nature play area that would deliver on the original scope and communities requests.

Hickey Avenue Park playground, Daglish

• Has been awarded to Forpark (Option 1 in the January voting - receiving 77.4% of votes).
• Currently scheduled to be installed before the end of the financial year (dependant on weather or any other unforeseen issues).
• Due to such positive feedback received, the playground’s footprint has been rationalised and shuffled down to under the beautiful trees. This will provide the playground with better natural shade, leaving the lovely large open grassed area for the community to utilise for family picnics and any other sporting activities such as a kicking the footy or soccer ball, etc

Redfern Street minipark playground, Subiaco (also known as View Street pocket park)

• Has been awarded to Forpark (Option 1 in the January voting - receiving 81.6% of votes)
• Currently scheduled to be installed before the end of the financial year (dependant on weather or any other unforeseen issues).
• The new playground design selected was the community favourite and will have the same footprint as the existing playground and offer new and exciting play elements to suit differing developmental stages. The play area will still be nestled under the beautiful trees for natural shade.

Park Street minipark playground, Subiaco – carried forward

The decision has been made to carry forward the Park Street Playground project into the new financial year and seek additional funding from Council in order to deliver on the initial scope of a “new unique playground with varied/best practice play experiences” on behalf of our community. The final playground design for Park Street Park will be selected based on community feedback and comments received during community consultation, and will be constructed in the new financial year. We would like to thank the community and playground designers for their feedback and time, and we look forward to delivering a new and exciting playground for Park Street, Subiaco in the very near future.

Thanks again to those who took part in this process. For further information or queries, please contact the City’s Parks and Environment Department - Coordinator Park Development on 9237 9222 or via email on city@subiaco.wa.gov.au.

The Stage 1 survey for the renewal of the Hickey Avenue, McCallum Avenue, Park Street and Redfern Street playgrounds was open between Friday 1 September 2023 and Monday 2 October 2023. Thank you to those who took part in the survey, we received 87 responses. The Parks and Environment team have captured their responses to the comments received during consultation. This can be read in the project document library (link).

Respondents preferred activities:

The information collated was included in a Request For Tender (RFT) for the design, supply and install of all four playgrounds, which closed on 20 November 2023. Each park will vary in play equipment to suit different developmental stages for children ranging from 1 to 12 years of age that encourage age-appropriate exploration and skill development.

During the Stage 2 community consultation (coming soon), the Stage 1 participants will be invited to vote on their favourite design for each playground.

This process is guided by community, available budget and the City's Playspace Strategy (2013).