Peninsula Playground Broadwater Parklands

Peninsula Playground, Broadwater Parklands.


Client	City of Gold Coast
Design Partners	AECOM, POMO, LVX, JMac
State	Queensland

A destination play experience like no other.

Broadwater Parklands at Southport is one of the Gold Coast’s most iconic foreshore parks. As part of the ongoing delivery of the City of Gold Coast’s multi-million-dollar Broadwater Parklands Masterplan, Fleetwood was engaged early (EOI stage) to partner with landscape architects AECOM to detail and deliver a ‘destination’ play structure to attract visitors from across South East Queensland and beyond.

Fully custom and hugely complex, the key elements delivered by Fleetwood Urban comprised an 18-metre ‘Shell’ spiral tower with four levels of interactive play and an adjoining horizontal play structure.

The design phase alone ran for two years, with the 12-month build completed comfortably in time for the peak 2022 summer holiday period. A challenging project in many ways, it resulted in a fantastic community outcome.

Our involvement.

Fleetwood’s role evolved over three distinct and highly collaborative phases.

Our first involvement came in July 2017 when we successfully partnered with AECOM to develop fully-custom play concepts in response to the EOI for Broadwater Parklands. City of Gold Coast Council awarded the design contract to AECOM who immediately re-engaged us for the design and shop detailing stages, including multiple workshops with their inhouse design team and the Council. Fleetwood Urban was then novated under the lead landscape contractor JMac for the final stage to fabricate, assemble and install the approved play structures on-site, whilst ensuring all necessary approvals were obtained from the project’s play auditors, CCEP.

Throughout the entire process we worked very closely with AECOM and Council with regular progress updates.

How does this project inspire people to love the outdoors?

The new structures offer a destination play experience like no other. By capturing the imagination of children of all ages and abilities, they will draw families and visitors from all corners of the Gold Coast, and beyond, every day of the year.

Design Challenge

Inspired by the Gold Coast’s famous coastal lifestyle, AECOM wanted the main play tower to resemble a giant seashell. It was a wonderfully creative concept that also proved wonderfully complex to achieve.

Shaping the approved aesthetic vision into a structural reality that was both safe and durable – a critical consideration given the exposed coastal location – was a significant challenge for our Design team, with the ever-present risk of overcomplication calling for rigorous design, careful specification and precision shop detailing.
Construction Challenge

The play structures featured a huge amount of bespoke detail that required painstaking fabrication, pre-assembly and installation on site.

The custom nature of the designs also provided considerable complexity in terms of safety compliance and certification from play auditors CCEP.

The site itself was also very close to the ocean, making it extremely windy and exposed for work crews – a situation compounded by record-breaking rainfall and flooding during the installation window. This further exacerbated existing supply chain issues caused by the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions impacting the QLD/NSW border.
Innovations

Creating such a bespoke series of play elements required constant innovation, with virtually every stage of the project presenting new challenges.

Some of the more interesting technology innovations surrounded the development of a custom lightning protection system to keep the public safe during stormy weather, as well as a beacon atop the main tower programmed to mimic the local tides.
Features
- 18-metre ‘Shell’ play tower with beacon & spiral helix
- Laser cut ‘bird wraps’ attached to web netting
- Glockenspiels mimicking the noise of the native birdlife
- Enclosed tube slide
- Lightning protection system
Safety & Risk Considerations

The exposed coastal location, coupled with the sheer height of the main play tower, presented a variety of risks that needed to be carefully managed during the installation. The lead contractor had stringent site and safety rules that were followed at all times.
Sustainability Considerations

It was important to maximise the design life of the new play structures whilst minimising ongoing maintenance. Specifying durable materials and finishings was especially critical given the site’s location and anticipated high usage.