Rockhampton’s Kershaw Gardens was recently announced as a winner of the 2019 Parks and Leisure Australia Regional Awards.
Chosen as the Best Playspace in Queensland over $500,000, the redevelopment will be judged against some of the Country’s best at the National Awards later this year. Rockhampton Regional Council’s Manager of Project Delivery, Andrew Collins, described the project as, “an extension to the revitalisation of the region and a major legacy project.”
He was quick to point out, “It was the hard work and commitment of the core project team and the cooperation from all departments involved that was fundamental to the success of the project.”
Council Engineer, Kim Saloyedoff, who was the lead designer for the project, worked closely with Landscape Architect Urbis and Urban Play, who supplied and sourced the equipment, including the very popular ‘Wyatts Wonder Webb’ and together, they transformed the project into the award winning space it is today.
The project had some challenges, such as designing the central area to be built on top of a closed landfill site.
“The biggest challenge was the inclusion of ‘Wyatts Wonder Web’, a large structure being built on ground, that had unknown strength and the likes of which had never been designed or built anywhere else in the world.
“This required extensive external party design reviews, to ensure the structure met the building requirements in Australia and in particular, Rockhampton (cyclone ratings, playground safety requirements and other Australian Standards).
“Also, as the equipment was designed in Germany, the design calculations were supplied in German!”
Playground Designer and Director of Urban Play, Ben Urban, said he was absolutely thrilled to see the world-class playspace be commended on a state level.
