Cairns City Council and the Queensland State Government have joined forces to provide Cairns ratepayers, residents, and visitors with the first stage of a multi million dollar foreshore development. Recognising that the involvement of local communities is a fundamental component of good civic design, finalising the plans for the redevelopment included extensive community consultation over a three year period. The result is a modern, fresh and aesthetically pleasing design, sympathetic to the natural environment and tying in well with the adjacent Fogarty Park, the Pier Marketplace and additional works with the Foreshore Promenade and City Port development.
The Esplanade project’s jewel in the crown is the 4,000 square metre saltwater swimming lagoon overlooking Trinity Inlet. This complex includes a single storey amenities building housing lifeguards and first aid room, change rooms and kiosk.
The lagoon, seawall and adjacent parks have been constructed over up to eight metres of extremely soft silts and clays. After necessary reclamation works were completed, settlement occurred at a high rate initially but then slowed and is expected to continue for many years to come. With the continuous ground settlement, the pool was designed as a conventional water retaining structure, comprising a reinforced concrete slab supported on some 240 Frankipiles driven into the stiff underlying clays. Similarly, the seawall has been designed to protect the reclamation from extreme storm events. An innovation in the seawall construction has been the use of only light reinforcing using all stainless steel, above the foundation level, to assure that reinforcement corrosion will not occur.
Also included in this project is the new Fogarty Park Performance Facility. This caters for small performances with seating directly in front, to crowds of up to 4,000 people spread over the lawn sections for larger events.
Tree planting and landscaping works are integral to the project. An important part of the project has been liaison with local custodians of the land. Through Council’s Indigenous Land Use Agreement, the project contractor entered an agreement with the Gimuy Cultural Development Aboriginal Corporation to subcontract $500,000 of the landscaping works. As a result of their work on the project, eight Indigenous trainees have achieved TAFE Certificates in Horticulture and Landscaping.
The Harbour Walk between the swimming lagoon overlooking the famous Cairns waterfront is a great place to view the birdlife prolific in this area. Visitors and residents can also enjoy the barbecue facilities provided, take time to ride or walk the Esplanade and have a game of football in the open spaces.
General Manager City Works and Services and current State President of the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia, John Hawkes, who has responsibility for both Council’s project and facility management teams believes that this project has provided as much experience and challenge to those involved as they could possibly hope to find in most major public works ventures.
