A park with a difference

Community parkland is usually designed by adults, but used largely by children.

Wyong Shire Council has turned the traditional model on its head by asking school students to design their own park and facilities. The project is a partnership between Woongarrah Public School and Council's Open Space and Recreation and Community Development sections.

Students at the school have been involved with designing and selecting playground equipment for a new park in the area. In addition, Council's Community Artists spent a year working with the pupils to design and make artwork for installing in the park. And the result, which will be unveiled over coming months, is a remarkable community exercise where a space is becoming a place that will genuinely be owned by the public.

For a start, the park - in Matram Road at Woongarrah - winds like a serpent rather than the traditional square or oval.

Pathways will include mosiacs of concealed animals; a hopscotch games area; and indigenous themes. A series of wooden poles will feature native animal scenes and there will be an fauna sanctuary wall with glass bricks made by the children themselves.

Many of the park's features were constructed at the school and, when it is finished, a name for the area will be selected by its young designers.

BOF goes on show
Another unusual piece of community art - a big ball of string dubbed the 'Ball of Friendship' is taking pride of place in a new community centre on the Central Coast.

The ball was passed among local organisations, youth groups and schools, who each added string to signify growing community spirit. More than two-and-a-half thousand members of the community were involved in taking BOF from a single thread to an eight kilogram ball.

From the size of a golf ball, the bundle of string grew until it resembled a basketball. It has now been mounted in a glass case inside the community centre at Blue Haven.

Page last updated: 31/01/2008