{"id":33209,"date":"2025-06-17T06:51:25","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T20:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=33209"},"modified":"2025-06-17T06:51:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T20:51:25","slug":"four-times-the-fun-as-city-of-newcastle-begins-750000-playground-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/06\/17\/four-times-the-fun-as-city-of-newcastle-begins-750000-playground-upgrades\/","title":{"rendered":"Four times the fun as City of Newcastle begins $750,000 playground upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p id=\"isPasted\">Work will begin tomorrow on a new playground and half-court basketball area at Beauford Avenue Reserve in Maryland as part of City of Newcastle&#8217;s annual Playground Replacement Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Playgrounds at Morpeth Road Reserve at Waratah West, Johnson Park at Lambton and Stockton Pool will also be replaced as part of a $750,000 investment to provide improved recreational opportunities for families across the local government area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/getmedia\/3bb205e7-a60f-4597-bc0b-7e0f6ae544bb\/Artist-s-impression-Beauford-Avenue-Reserve-Maryland-web.jpeg\" alt=\"Artist's impression Beauford Avenue Reserve\"><em>An artist&#8217;s impression of the new playground and half-court basketball facility being built by City of Newcastle at Beauford Avenue Reserve in Maryland.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>City of Newcastle&#8217;s Executive Manager Community and Recreation Lynn Duffy said the Playground Replacement Program has upgraded, replaced or improved 28 popular recreational areas since 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We know parks and playgrounds are an integral part of life in Newcastle,&#8221; Ms Duffy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;City of Newcastle has invested more than $14 million into playground projects across Newcastle during the past seven Budgets as part of our commitment to delivering enhanced and accessible recreational opportunities for the community.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAdditionally, the draft 2025\/26 Budget features $10 million for the Foreshore Park inclusive playspace, which will be the city\u2019s first regional level playground, with $750,000 also included for the local playground renewals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The four playgrounds chosen as part of this year&#8217;s Playground Replacement Program will receive new equipment such as nest seat swings, climbing structures, a variety of slides, rubber softfall and inground trampolines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Work will begin at Maryland tomorrow and over the next few weeks we&#8217;ll carry out demolition, drainage improvements, concreting and sandstone elements to get the site ready for the equipment as soon as possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chair of City of Newcastle\u2019s Infrastructure Strategic Advisory Committee,&nbsp;Councillor Peta Winney-Baartz, said it&#8217;s important to consider the needs of all users when designing playgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We aim to deliver enhanced and accessible playspaces for children right across the city,&#8221; Ms Winney-Baartz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve incorporated inclusive play elements into each location, as well as challenging play components such as slides and bridges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Beauford Avenue Reserve Playground and Stockton Pool Playground will have new paths added to ensure everyone can access the facilities.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The playground at<strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Stockton Pool is due to be replaced&nbsp;by the time swimmers return to the facility in September, in addition to new barbecue shelters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Morpeth Road Reserve and Johnson Park playgrounds are scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Work will begin tomorrow on a new playground and half-court basketball area at Beauford Avenue Reserve in Maryland as part of City of Newcastle&#8217;s annual Playground Replacement Program. Playgrounds at Morpeth Road Reserve at Waratah West, Johnson Park at Lambton and Stockton Pool will also be replaced as part of a $750,000 investment to provide &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/06\/17\/four-times-the-fun-as-city-of-newcastle-begins-750000-playground-upgrades\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Four times the fun as City of Newcastle begins $750,000 playground upgrades&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33210,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33209\/revisions\/33210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}