By Callum Ludwig
Temporary fencing has been once again put up at the courts near the Warburton Water World to allow for more visitor parking in a move which has frustrated Warburton residents.
It’s not the first time this has occurred, with the fencing put up for an extended period last summer to help alleviate parking issues.
Warburton resident and owner of the nearby Warburton Motel Richard Stanwix shared a post on a community Facebook group about the issue that gained a lot of traction and said he drives past the courts multiple times every day all year round and it’s in constant use.
“I constantly see kids playing basketball, families having a hit of tennis people or little toddlers riding learning how to ride bikes, sometimes there’s 12 to 15 or more people using the courts when I drive past and I’m pleased to see that,” he said.
“Council pulls this caper every summer when that facility is for the community that lives here, I am of course all for supporting visitation and providing infrastructure but for the sake of 20 or 30 car parks and not making another 20 or 30 people walk a relatively short distance from their temporary car park at ADRA [Redwood Centre], they are prepared to sacrifice the one main free community play space in Warburton for the entire summer,”
“The trade-off is disproportionate, the provision of some convenience for visitors to the water park is not proportionate to the total deprivation of the play park for the whole of the Warburton community, that’s just an imbalance that has been landed there and I don’t know how they struck that as a sensible conclusion.”
An email from Yarra Ranges to Mr Stanwix and shown to the Star Mail indicated that temporary fencing at the courts will have the same layout as last summer and that the overflow parking at the ADRA Redwood Centre will be in use once the ground is firm and dry enough.
Acting CEO of Yarra Ranges Council Hjalmar Philipp said they were anticipating significant amounts of visitors to Warburton on the Grand Final long weekend.
“As a result, we’ve erected car park fencing near Warburton Water World. We will be directing visitors to the overflow carpark at the Redwood Centre as needed, with clear directional signage and traffic control,” he said.
“However, the surface may not be immediately available for car parking due to recent wet weather,”
“We’ll be keeping part of the asphalt sporting courts open for community members, and monitor the needs of carpark users over the warmer months.”
Mr Stanwix’s Facebook post garnered 43 comments before commenting was disallowed for the post, with Warburton residents generally echoing his sentiments regarding the loss of the facilities at the time of year they would be used most, the naming of the ‘Warburton Water World’ splash park and the cost of traffic control.
Mr Stanwix said he believes visitors’ expectations for the Warburton Water World also contribute to the issue.
“I think the local kids named it and they named it the Warburton Water World and for a bunch of little primary school children it probably is like a wonderful theme park on their back doorstep but people in Geelong also read that and hear the same thing,” she said.
“We talk to folks all the time and many are shocked and incredibly disappointed that they have come from Werribee or Point Cook or wherever else thinking they were coming to a water theme park to find themselves at a splash park that they would find in any other community.”
“I think if they recalibrated the offering they’ll solve a bunch of their parking problems but still, even if they did that, they would still exceed the very small car park they’ve made, but ADRA should be their short-term solution and they should be busily working on their long -term solution and I don’t think any of it should be at the sacrifice of the one key fenced, safe play space for kids and adults.”
