A SPLASHING GOOD TIME

A playful hub for residents of all ages and abilities, the Collinsville Splash Park is a much-needed waterplay arena for this tropical community.

Nestled within the beautiful landscape of the Whitsunday Region in far north Queensland, Collinsville is a rural town with a small local community. A coal-rich region, the suburb has a long mining history, with many residents serving the Bowen mines.

To ensure quality of life, the community of Collinsville requested an aquatic playspace that would serve residents of all ages and abilities, improving liveability through a fun and adventurous recreation space that supported inclusion and, very importantly, involved water!

Answering the call was leading splash pad and water park equipment manufacturer and supplier Waterplay. Working through their Queensland supplier, Urban Play, Waterplay provided splash pad features and supported the design and planning of the Collinsville splashpark.

Packed with dynamic water play elements that meet the needs of the diverse community, the Collinsville splashpark design is a big hit with everyone. Boasting tall dumping buckets, cascading water play tables and interactive sprayers, this exciting zero-depth splashpark uses universal design principles to ensure users of all ages and abilities can safely move around the space and enjoy experiences that meet their unique needs.

To support free-play, the splash park is separated into play zones that are designed for developing minds, thrill seekers, those who like to tinker and discover, and budding explorers looking for ways to build their confidence. The unique play zones allow users to move around the space freely and find pockets of play, both solo and collaborative, where they can feel engaged, challenged, or just have some plain old fun.

Expressing a nature-based theme, fun design elements and bold greens and blues spark the imagination and creative thinking. Spraying palm trees trickle water onto users below, leaves with cascading water streams cast colourful green shadows onto the pad, and inviting beach stones that double as seats offer a fun space for all ages to sit, relax and explore the gentle water effects.

For those who like to engage in more contemplative play, a play table with cascading streams over translucent panels teaches children about the movement and patterns of water and the underlying science behind it (a playful way to engage in STEM).

The vibrant blue, green and yellow hues of the splash pad floor invite children to engage with familiar animals and their footprints, adding an extra layer of imaginative play using local fauna.

At the centre of the splashpark is Waterplay’s iconic Mega Soaker, a dumping sphere that unleashes over 200 litres of water onto thrill-seekers below. On the ground, interactive sprays fill out the space and create dynamic streams of water bursting from the surface to generate a jam-packed water-filled experience from the ground up.

Rounding out the splashpad experience are two epic water slides. A must when it comes to waterplay, the slides were contributed by Waterplay’s NSW distributor, Parkequip. When users get to the top of the stair tower, they choose from a corkscrew slide or a straight slide to take them back down to the fun zone on the splashpad below.

With plenty to see and do, the Collinsville splashpark is guaranteed all-day fun for everyone and an ideal solution to a year-round tropical climate.

PROJECT PARTICULARS

Client Whitsunday Regional Council

Location Collinsville, Queensland

QLD Supplier Urban Play

NSW Supplier Parkequip

Equipment Supply Waterplay Corporation