$32m Facelift Set To Rejuvenate Gold Coast Foreshore
Sun Herald
Sunday June 1, 2008
THE Gold Coast's Broadwater area - currently a thin strip of parklands beside the water - will soon rank alongside some of the world's best foreshores, Gold Coast Mayor Ron Clarke says.
Work starts this week on the $32 million facelift of the Southport Broadwater Parklands project, and Cr Clarke said the transformation of the three-kilometre strip along Marine Parade, roughly between the children's playground opposite the Australia Fair shopping centre to the Southport swimming pool, will delight locals as well as visitors."This will be a wonderful facility not just for the people of Southport and the Gold Coast, but for the many thousands of day trippers from Brisbane and south-east Queensland who take advantage of the Broadwater Parklands each year," he said.Cr Clarke said that over the years the Broadwater Parklands had gradually become disconnected from the Southport business centre by car parks and the busy Gold Coast Highway. The project will reconnect the two areas.The first stage of the joint State Government and Gold Coast City Council project is scheduled for completion early next year to commemorate 150 years since Queensland's separation from NSW in 1859.The new facilities will include a pier, a redesigned events space, an outdoor stage and screen and extended grassed and children's playground areas. The project incorporates environmentally sustainable design principles and establishes an ongoing management plan for the Parklands using energy efficiency and water sustainability. The Broadwater car park has closed for the redevelopment but Carey Park car park, on Marine Parade, will remain open. The swimming enclosure and the children's playground adjacent Washington Waters Park, opposite the Australia Fair shopping centre, will be closed temporarily.Future stages of the redevelopment are yet to be scheduled.
© 2008 Sun Herald