Water Play Park works to boost water quality and reduce closures

Published on 07 March 2018

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Mildura Rural City Council is about to start major works to the popular Water Play Park in a bid to improve water quality and reduce closure times.

Council will close the facility from today to start work replacing the coloured softfall surface with pebblecrete.

While the existing softfall surface was widely used in water play parks across the country when the Water Play Park was built in 2014, we now know that its porous nature can allow water to seep through it, almost acting like a sponge that retains water.

Unfortunately this creates a build-up of moisture where bacteria can grow, which we believe is the cause of the periodic water quality issues that have forced us to close the facility to ensure the public’s safety.

Council’s General Manager Development Mandy Whelan said this same issue has occurred at other water play parks since the Mildura facility was built, and Councils in these areas have replaced the softfall in their facilities with pebblecrete.

“Ultimately, this is about ensuring the public’s safety as well as ensuring this fantastic facility can continue to be enjoyed by as many people as possible,” Ms Whelan said.

“We understand this is a much-loved asset and that closing it is frustrating, but public health and safety is our number one priority, and always has been, which is why, despite the frustration it's caused, we have always closed the facility and treated the water when it did not meet public health requirements.

“We’re confident based on the evidence from other areas, that once the pebblecrete is installed, that we will have far fewer water quality issues and less closures.”

The works and resulting closure this week have been planned to ensure the Water Play Park is operating in time for Easter and the April School Holidays, which is one of the busiest periods of the year for the facility.

“It’s not ideal having the facility closed during the coming long weekend, but we felt it would be more frustrating for both local residents and the thousands of visitors that flock to our region at Easter if we were forced to close the Water Play Park during that period,” Ms Whelan said.

The new pebblecrete will be safe, non-slip and be designed to fit in with the existing Water Play Park design. It will also have the added benefit of being more durable, meaning less maintenance in coming years.

 

Media enquiries 
Ben Piscioneri
p) (03) 5018 8689 
e) ben.piscioneri@mildura.vic.gov.au

 

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