Cairns Council Closes Sugarworld Waterpark

The Sugarworld water park at Edmonton, North Queensland has been closed after Cairns Regional Council identified structural problems in rides on the site.

The closure, which occurred last Thursday, reportedly surprised and disappointed the waterpark's leaseholder, Ersilia Phipps.

Phipps, who has run the water park for 16 years, still has four years of her lease to run and said she and her husband, as well as about seven casual staff, were now out of a job.

Cairns Regional Council has not commited to reopening the park, instead saying the financial implications of repairing the structures would be assessed once further investigations were carried out.

Ersilia Phipps said she could understand the councilâs decision to close the park, but said she was disappointed she did not get more warning to tell staff and customers, telling The Cairns Post "safety has to come first but I thought we would have a bit more time to tell everyone so I am a bit disappointed.

"We will definitely be out of pocket. We havenât worked out the ramifications yet. Everything else we just have to work out over time. I don't know what we are going to do."

The Council's Community, Sport and Cultural Services General Manager, Ian Lowth, said problems with the park's steel and fibreglass structures were detected during a routine check but denied recent users of the park were put at risk.

Lowth explained "in the context of the information at hand prior to the receipt of the current engineering report, council was operating within the acceptable risk parameters."

When asked if the council would pay to fix the problems and reopen the water park, Lowth was non-committal, stating "Council is committed to exploring all options relating to this issue and as such will undertake further analysis to inform the future course of action in the best interests of public safety and the long-term considerations of the facility."

Divisional Councillor Nancy Lanskey said she was hopeful the closure would only be temporary while Councillor Rob Pyne said he would support a motion to allocate funds to the water park in the Council's upcoming Budget.