New concept designs released for Ballarat’s Brown Hill Splash Park Precinct

New concept designs have been released for Ballarat’s Brown Hill Splash Park Precinct - marking the first significant step towards the implementation of the Brown Hill Recreation Reserve Master Plan.

The new splash park precinct is being considered by the City of Ballarat to replace the existing Brown Hill Outdoor Pool.

The concepts of the new aquatic splash park feature an adventure zone, an exploration zone, and a toddler development and discovery zone. The park would have a mixture of water play features ranging from a large dumping bucket and water cannons to more gentle and predictable water effects.

The splash park is expected to open for the summer of 2024/25.

The proposed Brown Hill Recreation Reserve Master Plan was created after extensive community consultation and expanded on previous consultation work conducted by the Brown Hill Progress Association regarding the future of the pool and the overall amenity of the reserve.

There is an election commitment from the Victorian Government of $1 million towards the overall redevelopment of Brown Hill Recreation Reserve, while the City of Ballarat has also committed $660,000 from the 2023/24 budget towards the Splash Park Precinct.

Further funding will be finalised as part of the City of Ballarat's upcoming 2024/25 budget.

The splash park has been identified as the initial priority item in the master plan, which will later also include further upgrades to the precinct.

City of Ballarat Mayor Des Hudson said it was exciting to see a vision for the splash park precinct starting to come to life and added "to be able to see how that space could be transformed is extremely promising.

"We have already seen how popular our other two splash parks at Sebastopol and Midlands Reserve are so we are looking forward to delivering this vital project for Brown Hill."

A City of Ballarat MySay page has been established where people can provide feedback on the concepts. The MySay page on the splash park will be open until Friday 24th May, with a tender for construction to be released in the coming weeks.

A community information session will also be held at Brown Hill Community Hall this week, organised in conjunction with the Brown Hill Progress Association. The session will take place at 5pm on Thursday 16th May and all are welcome to attend.