Dick Lawrence Playground is now open to the public, the playground is the latest in a series of local park and playground upgrades as part of the City of Fremantle’s ten-year playground renewal program.

The dramatic overhaul of the play equipment was funded with a $180,000 grant from the federal government’s Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program.

The City would like to thank the community for their input throughout the various stages of our engagement process which included surveys on the My Say Freo website, drop-in sessions at the oval, discussions at the Beaconsfield Precinct Group, letter drops to neighbouring residents and feedback from local schools. Your engagement helped create a playground with a mix of nature play elements and more traditional equipment, with lots of climbing to provide a fun challenge for children of all ages.

The new playground features a massive three-level cubby house with two slides, through floor access ladder, rock climbing wall, timber climbing wall and ramps for inclusive play.

It also has a large custom climber offering a variety of net and climbing challenges; nature play elements including balance beams, steppers, timber poles, logs and boulders; a sand play table with sand pulley and seating logs; an accessible basket swing and a xylophone for percussion play.

Other upgrades include new landscaped garden beds, accessible picnic tables and a wide accessible concrete path linking to nearby ACROD parking. A brand new accessible barbecue will be installed in the coming weeks.

We would also like to thank the community for your patience during the project delays, The City’s Parks and Landscape team and our contractors LD Total, Nature Playgrounds and Nature Play Solutions have done a great job. You can see more images from the Dick Lawrence Playground Opening in our photo gallery.

Beaconsfield residents will have seen the construction of the Dick Lawrence Playground is progressing with the play structures and concrete pathways now installed.

Our contractors are now working on the final placement of boulders and logs and the installation of playground sand and furniture before irrigation and garden bed preparation is completed.

Due to Covid impacts on our contractors, we expect construction to continue for another few weeks before opening to the public.

Beaconsfield residents may have noticed, there has not been a great deal of work occurring on the Dick Lawrence Playground upgrade since the site was fenced off in 2021.

The update that we provided in December 2021 explained that there were a few issues behind the scenes with labour and materials supply that have resulted in a long delay however we have used this time to undertake further Arboricultural tree assessment studies and we will use this information to ensure the existing mature trees are provided the best care possible as we progress into construction.

The Parks and Landscape team apologise for the delays and would like to let residents know that the playground construction is now back on track; with earthworks now completed. Construction in now programmed for completion in late April 2022.

For those following the progress of the Dick Lawrence Oval Playground, we have unfortunately had to pause work with the landscaping contractor due to the playground manufacturer experiencing delays sourcing materials and hiring of contractors to build the fort - which will be the main play item at the playground.

This has held the project up until the New Year as we didn’t want to expose tree roots over the Christmas break, in case we had a hot spell and the trees would become water stressed.

Thank you to all those who commented on the concept plan for a new playspace at Dick Lawrence Oval. The engagement findings have been compiled and are ready to view in the document library.

What we heard

There were 343 visits to the My Say Freo page and 9 people provided a submission. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive with almost everyone expressing support for the upgrades and/or gratitude for the renewal.

Some people wanted to see a path all the way around the oval, or to the oval. This is outside the scope of the renewal, however the small path within the playspace will be modified slightly to accommodate a short round trip on a scooter. These comments will also be considered in the Hilton Reserve masterplanning process which will take place in the coming years and look at connectivity around the entire Hilton Sports Park precinct.

A number of respondents also requested water play. The infrastructure to support this type of play is costly and would require the sacrifice of many other play items, so it's only considered if there's a huge demand. In stage one we heard that nature play and climbing were the most popular types of play for this site, so those have been prioritised.

Seating was also raised. While outside the scope of the playspace renewal, provision for new bench seats with backs and arms has been made in the 2021/22 budget and is expected to be installed after the playspace is complete.

For more details about what we heard and how the comments were considered, view the engagement findings here.

Next steps

Based on the feedback, the small path within the playspace will be modified, and no other major adjustments are required. Other minor adjustments may occur throughout the procurement and construction phases.

Federal funding has been obtained for this project and is anticipated to be finalised by Council in March 2021. The detailed design documents will now be completed and play space construction is anticipated to begin in June/July 2021.

Any further updates will be available on this page. Thank you again for your contribution to this project.

Thanks to everyone who participated in stage one of community engagement on the renewal of Dick Lawrence play space. Some key findings are:

• Nature play was the most popular activity, followed by climbing.

• The preferred style is natural / nature play mixed with more ‘traditional’ equipment including challenging equipment like monkey bars and climbing.

• Location A (current location) was preferred by the majority of participants, but the reasons why are important to understand (see full report). A group of people don’t mind about the location and some would prefer location B.

• People that would use the play space also come to the oval as: a destination for a walk, a place to gather or meet (group size for friends / family), to exercise the dog and for informal exercise.

• Separating dogs and children is a key concern for many participants.

There were many more findings and lots of useful information provided. The full engagement report is available here or from the document library.

This input will now be used by the landscape architects to develop a draft concept for the new play space at Dick Lawrence Oval. Once this is ready for your feedback we will notify all participants and also make it available here on My Say Freo. This is expected to be in early February 2021.

If you or your family use this playspace we'd like to hear from you.

You can drop-in to the current Dick Lawrence playspace (Shepherd Street) Saturday 31 October 2020, any time between 10.00am-12.00pm to share your thoughts.

You can also share your ideas and thoughts on My Say Freo by Sunday 15 November 2020.