Thirroul Beach Playground
LOCATION
Thirroul Beach north of Wollongong
YEAR
July 2012
CLIENT
Wollongong City Council
Budget: $ 500 000
TEAM
UmbaCo Landscape Architects | Chris Bennetts, Kim Bowman Muzic, Celeste Coucke | and the students of Thirroul Public School and St. Michael's | Contractors : Kompan, Moduplay, Vivarec, Laser Wizard | Landform Gardens, Big City Production
Thirroul Beach Playground
Awards: WINNER of a Playspace Award of Excellence NSW 2013 with Parks & Leisure Australia
This lovely play space area is located behind Thirroul Beach Pool. We have been engaged by Council to come up with design options based on a comprehensive and thoughtfully conducted consultation with local children, young people and their families. We were excited to learn that Thirroul was famous for its history of Wirth’s Circus arrival in 1930’s and grabbed this opportunity to respond to childrens’ ideas on circus stories about baby elephant as it “became bogged in the beach lagoon” (Don Gray, 2010; My Thirroul). This elephant sculpture becomes a focus of the substantial nature play area amidst local palms and a small performance space with drums.
Corten steel fences were decorated based on children’s drawings and now leave memento for all those involved when they grow up.
Celeste Coucke, the local artist elaborated on our circus and natural themes and included images of local nocturnal animals including flying foxes, possums, sugar gliders and Southern Boobook Owls. Meanwhile, a real 30 m long flying fox is being tested by all ages. If you can get to the top of the line…
