The first draft of plans for an upgrade to the top end of Murgon’s QEII Park – between Gore Street and the Visitor Information Centre – could be available by the end of December or early January.
And if the draft plans are approved by the community, work to carry out the upgrades could be completed by the middle of next year.
These tentative forecast dates were given at a public consultation meeting held in the park on Thursday afternoon by the South Burnett Regional Council’s acting Parks and Gardens Manager Mark Watt.
Mr Watt came along to the meeting to hear the community’s ideas for the project, which has had $150,000 earmarked in the Council’s 2021-22 Budget.
Other attendees included Cr Kathy Duff, Murgon Business and Development Association (MBDA) president Mark Smith, MBDA past president Leo Geraghty, MBDA media manager Lorraine Goodchild, former Murgon Shire councillor Cynthia Hatchett, Alan and Sharon Trim from the Murgon Show Society and several interested residents.
Cr Duff said the upgrade of the town’s CBD parklands was a three-stage project that would likely take several years to complete.
The first stage would take in the section from Gore Street to the Visitor Information Centre, while the second stage would cover the area between the VIC and Douglas Street.
The final stage would focus on the area between Douglas and Heading streets.
She said Council had approved funding to kick off the project in this year’s Budget but warned that $150,000 didn’t stretch very far in a world where concrete could cost $150 per square metre.
Leo Geraghty told the meeting he had developed a detailed plan for the park to promote discussion.
Alan and Sharon Trim also brought along ideas for the project, developed after discussions with stallholders at the Murgon Markets.
Common themes in both plans were the need to reduce existing clutter in the park; the replacement of several fig trees with less invasive root systems; levelling the park’s surface; and the introduction of modern, shaded picnic benches in place of several existing unshaded ones.
Both also agreed they would like to see wide, coloured concrete footpaths in the park and better use of the space for community events and monthly markets.
Mr Watt told the meeting he would relay all the group’s ideas to a designer Council would contract for the work, and advised it was possible the designer might come back with ideas that had not occurred to either group but which made practical sense.
He asked the meeting to keep an open mind if this happened, and recognise that an initial draft did not have to be the last word in the process.
- Related article: Meeting To Discuss Park Upgrade
