Woodgate Park Revamp!

In late 2019, ECA secured a Stronger Communities Program grant through the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science to upgrade Woodgate Park, located on the corner of Hagen Street and Woodgate Street. In addition to the grant amount, the District Council of Mount Barker committed funds from the 2020/2021 budget that enabled the ECA to dream ‘a little bigger’ with the upgrade.

The project kicked off when ECA undertook an initial clean up of the park late in 2019, tidying up a very overgrown perimeter of prickly bushes, trimming back trees and shrubs, and picking up rubbish. Since then, Council have also attended to maintenance issues at the park and installed a new fence on the north side.

Our 'newest' addition to the park, installed in July 2020, is a nature pathway for small bikes, and some general ‘nature play’ space through the trees. With help from the local community and some members of the Echunga Football Club, the ECA held a working bee to dig, fill and compact the ~70m meandering path, which was immediately road tested by some of the smaller members of our community in their prams and on scooters…. And reportedly, it was only an hour or two before the locals appeared with bikes! It is so very cool to see the kids enjoying their new space; it’s why we do, what we do!

There are more additions planned for the 2020 upgrade of this space, including a new picnic table with bench seats, an additional piece of play equipment (aimed at <5 year olds) and fencing on the west side of the park. We hope to involve the Macclesfied Men’s Shed in the construction of our picnic table, and will be asking the community to vote on some options for the additional piece of play equipment. Stay tuned for further updates!

Thanks to all those that have rocked up with shovels, trailers, pruners and wheelbarrows… that have taken excavated dirt, prickly bushes and rubbish away… and who have ‘chipped in’ the hours to help with this project – we are super proud of the transformation but also of our community coming together to ‘get the job done’.