New $70,000 dollar nature-based playground officially opens amid Gnowangerup’s baby boom

Gnowangerup is the the midst of a baby boom - and now it has a flash new playground to help parents cope with the new crop of kids. An immersive play tractor and a towering fort overlooking Gnowangerup Sporting Complex are features of the new playground experience that officially opened last week. The $70,000 nature-based playground was designed to challenge children, with a climbing pyramid and pulley system to push them physically and mentally. Built on a hill overlooking the home of the Gnowangerup Bulldogs and next to the new home of the Gnowangerup Playgroup, Shire of Gnowangerup president Fiona Gaze said the playground was perfectly situated. “You can watch sport from here and parents can keep a close eye on their children,” she said. Plans for the playground have been in the making since Gnowangerup Playgroup moved to the sports pavilion at the Gnowangerup Sporting Complex in August. “We (Gnowangerup Playgroup) were sort of stuck inside with activities, so to be able to come outside to this new playground is awesome,” Gnowangerup Playgroup parent Gemma Mickan said. “I think that the playground is wonderful and it will be handy with sport and is appropriate for kids of all ages, which is good.” Earlier this year, Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed Gnowangerup had the highest fertility rate in WA, at 2.97 babies per woman, compared to the national average of 1.66. The new playground is part of a string of new projects being undertaken across the shire this year through a $1 million grant from the Federal Drought Communities Program. “For us it has been been fantastic,” Cr Gaze said. “ It is a once-in-a-lifetime shot in the arm.” Twelve projects throughout the towns of Ongerup, Gnowangerup and Borden are under way in a bid to improve tourism, water supply and infrastructure. O’Connor MHR Rick Wilson congratulated the Shire and the playgroup for using the funding to improve water supplies as well as the new playground. “The grant is about boosting the morale of communities who have had a tough time dur-ing water deficiencies,” he said. Mr Wilson said he was aware of the inadequate distribution of the funding across shires throughout the Great Southern. He said he planned to bring National Drought and Flood Agency co-ordinator-general Shane Stone to the region to discuss it further.