	{"id":119978,"date":"2026-03-02T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=119978"},"modified":"2026-02-25T17:56:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T06:56:42","slug":"work-begins-on-community-driven-playground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/work-begins-on-community-driven-playground\/","title":{"rendered":"Work begins on community-driven playground"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WAUBRA is beginning to see years of toil and more than $330,000 fundraised in the form of swings and slides .<\/p>\n<p>Work has begun on a playground that the community has united over.<\/p>\n<p>What started as an idea from three mums in 2024 has led to lobbying and money raised from residents to large businesses.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Many contributors don&#8217;t even have young children,&#8221; project member Bree Edmonston said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They simply believe Waubra deserves quality community infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The contractor even commented that he has never seen so much community interest in a project like this before.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While maintained, the previous play equipment Ms Edmonston said had been in need of replacement.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/03\/260220breewithdaught_90140.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bree, Neve and Harriet Edmonston.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>She said the playground at Waubra&#8217;s community hub was first raised between herself, Lucy Gallagher and Molly Mason during school drop-offs and pick-ups.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;From there it quickly became fundraisers, community events, letters of support, funding requests, grant applications, meetings with council, community consultations, costings and design revisions,&#8221; Ms Edmonston said.<\/p>\n<p>She said the support from the community had been overwhelming.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve had financial donations, in-kind support, time, grant writing expertise, equipment advice, and constant encouragement,&#8221; Ms Edmonston said.<\/p>\n<p>Residents raised $27,000. The planning group approached Ausnet ($200,000), the State Government&#8217;s Tiny Towns Fund ($50,000), Waubra Windfarm Community Fund ($50,000) and Community Bank Beaufort ($5000), and they contributed the rest of the raised total.<\/p>\n<p>Locals, meanwhile, also provided materials and labour, and raised money through livestock sales. The Waubra Community Hub Committee, Waubra Football and Netball Club, and the town&#8217;s CWA, CFA, bowls club, kindergarten and primary school offered support.<\/p>\n<p>Work on the playground began this month and it is hoped to be ready in coming weeks, pending final installation of soft-fall and finishing works. It will include equipment, shelter, electric barbecue installation, softfall, landscaping, fencing and associated works.<\/p>\n<p>Pyrenees Shire Council is manager of the project.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Pyrenees Shire Council adopted the Waubra Recreation Reserve Master Plan in November 2025, with this plan including a new playground as a priority action,&#8221; chief executive officer Jim Nolan said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Waubra community has strongly supported council as project manager to deliver the project.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ms Edmonston said the playground was about creating a central meeting place for residents, but some were growing impatient.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every day the kids are asking if it&#8217;s done yet,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WAUBRA is beginning to see years of toil and more than $330,000 fundraised in the form of swings and slides . Work has begun on a playground that the community has united over. What started as an idea from three mums in 2024 has led to lobbying and money raised from residents to large businesses. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/work-begins-on-community-driven-playground\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":119984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-119978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Work begins on community-driven playground - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Waubra Community Playground takes shape after $330,000 raised, with locals uniting to deliver new family-friendly facilities.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/work-begins-on-community-driven-playground\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Work begins on community-driven playground - 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