New playground planned for Ocean Grove beach

THE new “Kurrak” playground being built at Ocean Grove Main Beach will celebrate Wadawurrung culture and the local environment.

Barwon Coast started planning for a new playground within the Ocean Grove Main Beach area in 2019.

An engagement process was conducted via community listening posts and an online survey to gauge sentiment on the need for a playground, its location and design.

There were 196 individual submissions, with 93 per cent in favour of the playground.

Key outcomes from the community engagement were a call for the playground to be accessible and to feature the local environment and the culture of the Traditional Owners of the region.

Wadawurrung woman and Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation manager of cultural education Corrina Eccles was a key contributor to the playground’s design.

“Kurrak means sand in Wadawurrung language. Kurrak Playground will celebrate the many Wadawurrung seasons.

“As children play here they can follow the Wadawurrung people’s seasonal journey throughout Wadawurrung Country. We hope this inspires them to care for Country too.

“This was a great opportunity for us to work with Barwon Coast to help them integrate cultural knowledge into the playground design.

“We are currently working with Barwon Coast on a Cultural Heritage Management Plan and communications and community engagement are a key part of this process.”

Barwon Coast chief executive officer Gary McPike said the playground is a long-awaited development for the local community.

“Beach users have told us they would like a playground on the coast in Ocean Grove through various recent community engagement processes we have undertaken,” Mr McPike said.

“The Main Beach area is an identified activity node in our strategic plans and the ideal location for the playground with access to parking and toilets.

“This will be a small playground catering to pre-school and lower primary aged children. We hope the accessible design will enable all children to play here and enjoy and gain inspiration from the Wadawurrung cultural knowledge and artwork featured in the play equipment and signs.

“We sincerely apologise for the delay between engaging our community on this project and its implementation. The project was put on hold in 2020 due to COVID-19 impacts on our organisation.”

Kurrak Playground is anticipated to be completed and ready for play in early 2022.

For more information or to see more concept designs, head to the Barwon Coast website.