Booran Reserve playground in Glen Huntly could be best in Melbourne
Bianca Carmona, Caulfield Glen Eira Leader
April 1, 2017 12:00am
A CHILD’S smile might be priceless to most, but it comes with a hefty price tag of almost $11 million in Glen Eira.
The council has spent $10.8 million creating what could be Melbourne’s most expensive playground at Glen Huntly’s Booran Reserve.
It is almost twice the cost of the Royal Park Nature Play Playground next to the Royal Children’s Hospital, which opened two years ago and is considered one of Melbourne’s best.
By comparison, neighbouring Bayside Council has approved funding of almost the same amount ($10.48 million) to improve more than 60 play areas over the next 10 years.Booran Reserve in Glenhuntly will open soon.
The Leader asked Glen Eira council what bang ratepayers were getting for their buck, but the council refused to reveal a breakdown of the final bill, acknowledging only that the State Government had provided $700,000.
Leader can reveal the water-themed playground of the future boasts Australia’s first double-dome climbing net, custom-made play equipment, a water play area, outdoor gallery space, urban forest corridor and double flying fox.
Glen Eira Council infrastructure, environment and leisure director Samantha Krull said the reserve, which was formerly a reservoir, included a range of spaces that provided for play, activity and relaxation.
The construction of the playground at the corner of Glenhuntly Rd and Booran Rd is now almost five months behind schedule, building anticipation about its opening on Sunday.
Comments from the Glen Eira Residents Action Group were mostly positive, with member Vicki Howson writing: “Wow, looks fabulous … can’t wait to take my grandchildren here.”
But Ratepayers Victoria vice-president Jack Davis wasn’t impressed, saying the price tag was “ridiculous”.
“It’s an exorbitant use of ratepayers’ funds,” he said.
A Community Fun Day will be held at the reserve on Sunday, April 9.
The official opening will be held on Tuesday, April 11, by Victorian Minister for Innovation Philip Dalidakis.
Glen Eira Debates 
April 1, 2017 at 12:24 PM
The performance of the new CEO from a small shire to a big one – gone nuts.
April 1, 2017 at 1:07 PM
Worth pointing out that the vast majority of the funding was approved under Newton’s reign
April 1, 2017 at 10:36 PM
It may be worth pointing out that what’s there now, has no resemblance to the plan that was shown to the public at the end of the public consultation process. The amount of hard surfacing on the site is questionable. as is the just plain old clutter, bits and pieces everywhere.
There is an enormous amout of sub-ground infrastructure on the site now, it will be interesting to see how much of the above ground gadgetry will be working in a few years time. Any failures will cost a bomb to dig up and repair, I’m hoping someone has had the sense to keep a detailed plan of what is buried where, otherwise it’s going to be a sad, sad story indeed.
I visited the the playground next to the children’s hospital recently and found it a lot more hands-ons adventurous, and organic in its design. Still no two playgrounds are the same, nor should they be, there is no doubt that the kiddies will enjoy the new Disneyland on Glen Huntly Road, mind you for 11 million bucks you might have been able to fly every kid in Glen Eira to Florida and back to see the real thing.
Hopefully it’s the very last of the Newton, Burke follies, it also might be the reason Newton shot through like a Bondi Tram.
April 2, 2017 at 8:09 PM
Your right. The end product is nothing like what residents said they preferred. Not the first time that plans have changed without letting people know and without consulting with them. Start off with plan a. Get people to say okay and change things in the middle at double the cost. Great way to run a council.
April 1, 2017 at 10:37 PM
What happened to the wide green expanses of open space? All I can see is $11m worth of concrete and mulch.
April 2, 2017 at 1:15 PM
It did cost a good few million to fill the old reservoir in. Your right far too much concrete and stone surfacing. There is also a large amount of water storage tanks buried beneath all that infrastructure.
There are more and more children going to be raised in all these new development happening around Glen Huntly so this will be their equivalent to a backyard. The so called urban forest strip has a locked gate at either end, effectively locking out the public, I cannot see the rationale for this. Maybe it’s to appease the neighbour wanting to keep the general public away from their fences, which is hardly a criteria for any other parkland anywhere in the world.
The shockingly garish wall art, is to deter the graffitist, but it may work in the opposite way, being so bad it may not gain the respect of the night-shift spray-can crew so they will deface it.
Remember the original idea for this site from the sports mad Cr’s like Tang was to have two synthetic soccer pitches behind chainwire fences and locked gates. The residents fought and won that battle. It may take many many years for this overstuffed disneyland to gracefully settle in.
I bet the next masterplan in 10 or 15 years hence, will see an equal amount of cash spent stripping all this fantasy stuff out, until some sought equilibrium is achieved.
April 2, 2017 at 9:45 AM
The Leader asked Glen Eira council what bang ratepayers were getting for their buck, but the council refused to reveal a breakdown of the final bill, acknowledging only that the State Government had provided $700,000.
Not commercial in confidence. Our money, our right to know.
April 2, 2017 at 5:00 PM
It would need to be excellent, it’s taken twice as long to finish as the undergrounding of three rail stations and it still looks a way off completion.
April 2, 2017 at 7:49 PM
Given their level of usage and importance, trust that similar funding will be allocated to activity centre structure plan implementation.