The opening of today’s Town Green West Playground marks the completion of Council’s $2.1 million upgrade of Town Green West Foreshore Project, delivering significant benefits to the popular Port Macquarie waterfront.

Today sees the completion and opening of an amazing new inclusive play space which features new main play structure, new seating areas including shade, nature play pieces, a separate toddler/breakout area, new sandstone retaining, paths and garden beds.

The upgrades to Town Green, including the Town Green West playground is a $2.13 million project, with $633,500 provided through contributions levied on commercial property owners within the Port Macquarie CBD. The Australian Government has provided $1.5 million through a Community Development Grant.

The Town Green West – Foreshore Project has achieved a regionally significant offering for community members and visitors to the area, including a new pedestrian pathway, upgrading of the rock revetment wall, new LED lighting, seating, installation of new turf and irrigation.

Federal Member for Cowper Pat Conaghan thanked the Port Macquarie Hastings Council and Port Macquarie Town Centre Master Plan Committee Members for seeing the project through from vision to completion.

“It’s fantastic to see community members engage directly with Council and subsequently the Federal Government to provide the very best facilities for our growing community. I’m so pleased to see this particular election promise reach completion, despite the considerable challenges faced by Council in recent years. It’s a testament to their vision and dedication. I know this will bring a lot of joy to tourists and locals alike.”

Port Macquarie Mayor Peta Pinson said today’s playground opening caps off a magnificent milestone, made possible thanks to the patience of our community and commitment by both Council and the Australian Government.

“What better way to mark the finalisation of this magnificent project than to unveil this incredible new facility for families and those visiting our beautiful foreshore just in time for the start of spring,” Mayor Pinson said.

“This is going to be another major drawcard for what is already a stunning location, surrounded by a backdrop of the Hastings River, local eateries and the newly improved Town Green turf and walkways.

“Thanks to the hard working commitment of Council staff, our patient community and our funding partners to help bring this project to fruition, particularly during a time of difficult wet weather.”

The Town Green West Playground has been delivered in close consultation with community. Initial community engagement was undertaken in December 2020 to understand what the community loved about the existing playground and what their vision was for the upgrade.

From this feedback, an initial concept design was developed and shared with the community for comment in May 2021. A final design was developed with consideration of feedback and was shared with the community in September 2021.

Through our community consultations, we received a lot of great feedback which assisted us in developing the final design(PDF, 5MB) for the upgrade. We’ve also created an infographic which outlines what we’ve heard(PDF, 850KB) from our community and how their feedback has influenced the design.