Council uses flood material to rehabilitate local park

20 April 2018

Community engagement key to successful project

The finishing touches will be applied this week to a project aimed at rehabilitating a much loved local park using material collected from landslips after last year’s floods.

Frangela Drive Reserve in Murwillumbah is a green space with plenty of mature trees for shade, used as an off lead area for local dog owners.

Under the surface though is an old tip site last used more than 40 years ago which in heavy rains used to reveal glass bottles, car parts and other waste.

This week 7000 square metres of turf will be laid on the site, covering up 4500 cubic metres of soil collected from landslip sites around the Shire and filtered before being brought to Murwillumbah.

Resident Neville Jennings said many locals – people and dogs alike - are excited about their refurbished park.

“Right from the first meeting Council held with residents where they spoke about the plans for the site we have had a really high level of communication,” Mr Jennings said.

“There is a history in our relationship with Council with the anti-hooning gate which was put at the park entrance plus the flying fox issue we had about 18 months ago, so that has served us well.”

Fellow resident Rosemary Stone, whose property backs on to the reserve, said communication with Council staff had made the whole experience easier to handle.

“I have asthma and when I let them know they took extra measures to keep the dust down which was very much appreciated,” Ms Stone said.

“There’s been a bit of noise and inconvenience but we all know what the final result will be so we are able to grin and bear it.”

Council Ganger Matthew Clark said he appreciated how flexible local residents have been.

“There were some issues with scheduling as we wanted to avoid the worst of the rain but everyone has been very understanding,” Mr Clark said.

“Being able to use all of this material which caused problems during the flood in a positive way is very rewarding.

“We managed to remove some of the old debris, level the park and address the drainage issues and the result is a safer, much improved community park that will be enjoyed well into the future.”

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Caption: Neville Jennings, Rosemary Stone, Anne Scott and Matthew Clark with Pebbles and Billy at Frangela Park.