How much do playgrounds cost?

I love a good playground. My daughters and I have ‘tested’ many great ones in Germany, the UK and in Australia.

When I read that $5 Million of public funding had been earmarked for a new playground in Cooroy I thought, wow that’s rather a lot for a playground. But what do I know?

Can you put a price on fun?

I wondered how much the more memorable playgrounds we experienced would have cost to build and I found the following figures:

Princess Diana Memorial Park, London

London with its over 8 Million inhabitants and 11 Million yearly visitors opened the amazing Princess Diana Memorial Pirate Playground in Hyde Park in 2000 – cost ca. $3 Million (1,700,000 Pound Sterling). Expensive to build, but always super busy. 

Ian Potters WILD PLAY Park, Sydney

Sydney with 4.8 Million inhabitants and 15.2 Million visitors per year opened the fantastic new Ian Potter Wild Play Garden in Sydney’s Centennial Parkland – cost ca. $4Million.

Very beautiful and popular.

Roundwood Park, London

My children were born in London. Our local little playground was Harlesden’s Roundwood Park with rickety swings, slides, a sand pit and a great little cafe at its centre was an important social hub for parents. 

While walking, scooting or roller skating to the park we got exercise and taught our kids street smarts. In the park children playfully learned, parents enjoyed a cup of tea and wholesome food while making connections – sometimes lifelong friends. It was basic, dated, but had a heart and served us well. Not only was it a very cheap set-up – at a guess no more than $200K -, but it also provided jobs and training for locals in its central cafe. Cafe operations also meant supervision of the site, emergency help and reduced vandalism.

Innovation: A Village called … Woodfordia

The Planting in Woodfordia features the most innovative thinkers and tinkerers in sustainable activities right on our doorstep. This is also true and particularly so for the children’s festival.

With very little permanent infrastructure, but great educators, supervisors and some power tools instead, children have a brilliant time. Building, inventing and playing. Costs unknown and hard to compare as this is temporary and many volunteers supporting the children play area.

The light footprint is appealing. The emphasis is on re-use of old pallets and boxes and reclaimed wood. Lots to learn and as costs for infrastructure and ‘things’ would be low, investing funds more in people might be worth exploring.

Basic joy: Dick Caplick Playground, Eumundi

We all know Eumundi’s popular Dick Caplick Park. My girls always loved playing there and it’s been hard to drag them away. No sprawl, lots of interaction and it serves both the community and Eumundi’s visitors well. The 2011 upgrade cost ca $200K.

And then there is Cooroy – taking the cake!

Ingrid Jackson explained in a facebook post (Thank you, Ingrid):

I keep seeing different figures quoted about the estimated cost of the Cooroy Playground. This has become confusing so I have sought details from council and in budget papers.

These are the figures:
2017/18 $35,000 (preliminary concept – actual)
2018/19 $310,317 (design – actual)
2019/20 $300,000 (design and tender – estimate)
2020/21 $4,400,000 (construction – estimate)
2020/21 $400,000 (car parking & raised pedestrian platform – estimate)
ESTIMATED GRAND TOTAL: $5,445,317
minus State grant of $2.8 million = $2,645,3178
minus what’s already spent = $2,035,000 yet to be spent by council.

NOT COUNTING the car parking and pedestrian crossing and NOT COUNTING the amounts already spent by the council, the construction alone is estimated to require an additional $1,635,000 council expenditure.

Nearly $5,5 Million ! – It is just a staggering amount. Surely rampant and oversized development is running against our world-famous ‘Noosa Style’. Who would have thought Cooroy needs a playground bigger than London’s or Sydney’s flagship playground?

Cooroy is wonderful little town and I love that Council approached the playground addition with fresh nature-based play concepts. The budget and size of it is just simply at odds with a modern low footprint regenerative approach. Isn’t it time we start thinking about development differently? Could we invest more in people and less in ‘things’ with slow growth and a people centred, more organic approach? 

A state grant might be perceived as ‘free money’, but it’s all our finite public money other projects jostle for. I’d rather lobby the state to spend it on duplicating the railway tracks to Eumundi than encourage such ‘splurging’. Maybe if we’d shift our mindset from ‘bingeing’ on ‘Big Ideas’ to a more agile and pragmatic approach many more urgent infrastructure projects could move past the planning post. Affordable housing, good public transport, fixing a crumbling storm water pipes, connecting active transport paths or developing an economically sound and fair Short Term Letting framework.

All of which would also benefit the little town of Cooroy in addition to a less glam but maybe even more exciting nature adventure playground.

PS: If you see any mistakes re costs above, please let me know. Real costs of projects such as this are hard to come by. Corrections, comments and feedback welcome – as always.
Thanks, Betty.