Page 1138 - Week 04 - Friday, 23 April 2021
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Madam Speaker, I would describe myself as an infrequent jogger. I am not one of the battle-hardened runners in Gungahlin parkrun every Saturday, but I get around the pond every few weeks or so in somewhat decent time. When I run, I often do it by myself in the evening. I feel like I take my life in my own hands sometimes. It is that dark and sometimes that busy. The, on average, nearly 200 people who attend parkrun every week are brave souls. I have run it before and it is packed. It is hard for them all to fit on the singular path with all of the traffic.
Just this Saturday I held a community barbecue at Yerrabi Pond. I do them occasionally as a good way to chat to constituents and it is a good excuse for me to have a few sausages. When my team plan these community barbecues, we actually plan for the lack of facilities. We pack a portable barbecue, extra seats and some shade because we know that the facilities are not there. It is one thing for me and my office to plan a barbecue for mostly adults who want to have a chat about local issues. It is entirely a different matter if you are trying to plan a kid’s birthday party.
There is a level of certainty that you need to have when planning for a kid’s birthday party. Who wants to organise a birthday party at Yerrabi Pond only to find out on the day as you arrive that every table is taken and there is competition for the barbecues? It has reached the point where I see families turning up early to try and reserve tables for later in the day. It is genuinely wild. It reminds me of gatherings in Sydney, not in Canberra.
With all of these people, some of you must be wondering, “Where do they come from?” The short answer is from all over Gungahlin. It is the central district park, and overwhelmingly they drive. The public transport connections do not exist. It is probably a 10- or 15-minute walk from Gungahlin town centre if you try to use public transport to get to the town centre. This means that finding a car park can be nearly impossible along the waterfront promenade or along the central recreational area.
The adventure playground and giant flying fox are fantastic and young kids get good use out of these facilities. I actually remember when I was a youngster playing on these very same pieces of equipment and they are some of the fondest memories that I have of my childhood. They are great playgrounds, but they are not maintained particularly well. Some of the, as I would describe them, potholes in the protective matting will give you pause when you see a kid standing in them halfway up their shins.
The skate park is popular, but it could be so much better. It is not that big, and it is not that exciting. There is definitely some big envy towards the very well done Belco skate park. The dirt bike track and new nature play space are also great, and the local community is very excited to see the fencing come down on the nature play space. The toilet block is outdated. It is in poor condition. The toilets are dimly lit, unventilated and vandalised. There are no change tables and they are not disability friendly. It is unsurprising that people do not want to use these inaccessible and uninviting facilities.
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