The next phase of the Queens Park improvements have started with a playground upgrade and new landscaping for Toowoomba’s premier park.

Toowoomba Regional Council’s Parks and Recreation Services portfolio leader Cr Joe Ramia said the works would include renewing the Lindsay Street playground and landscaping a section of the Margaret Street frontage. “The work to renew the playground will help to increase play diversity and cater for all abilities,” Cr Ramia said. “The play area features a Liberty swing, which caters for children and adults using wheelchairs, sound-sensor games, musical instruments, and touch-and-feel play panels. The upgrade work will also meet regional park delivery standards.”

Items to be installed at the site include: a wheelchair-accessible fort, a cosy dome (dome structure with various textures for climbing), a toddler swing, accessible musical chimes and digger, an accessible rotating platform, a rotating overhead wheel, an oodle swing (a single platform swing that can seat four to six children) and exercise apparatus. Cr Ramia said the Lindsay Street playground would be closed from March until June 2019 to allow the work to be carried out safely.

“The landscaping work will start on the embankment in Queens Park opposite the Margaret Street-Burstow Street intersection and continue along the street to near the Lindsay Street intersection,” Cr Ramia said. “The footpath along Margaret Street will still be accessible but there will be barrier fencing along the street on the footpath edge to mark the location of the works. The landscaping and access improvements are expected to be completed in May 2019, weather permitting.”

Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said, “Queens Park is popular with locals and a great tourism drawcard, so it is terrific to see this revamp taking place. The Palaszczuk Government is pleased to be contributing almost $1.3 million to make a great attraction even better.”

The Stage Five works are part of Council’s $12 million Queens Park Master Plan implementation project, designed to enhance public facilities while maintaining the features of the city’s premier park. The Queens Park Stage Five Master Plan Improvement Works is a joint initiative of the Toowoomba Regional Council and the Queensland Government.

Readers also enjoyed this story about Yelarbon Silo Art Project.