Orange to get its own water splash park following government funding

The news comes after a $400,000 grant was awarded to Orange City Council, with acting mayor Gerald Power delighted by the news.

"When all of us new councillors were elected 12 months ago, we all sat down in relation to some of the platforms we were running on and one of them was a splash park," he said.

"There were about four or five of us that were saying they'd been approached to have something like that in Orange. It was on the wish list."

A group led by Councillor Tammy Greenhalgh was then created and some 12 months later, the council got the good news.

"It's a permanent thing. Forbes has a similar one and so do other communities. The water pours out and there's a system to cleanse it and then come back out again," Mr Power said of what the splash park would be like.

"There will be water guns, where kids can shoot water at each other, there will be water spouting up from the ground and into the air and there will also be a water bucket which will flow over people. It will also have slides where the water is running down."

The splash park itself will be located at the Moulder park netball courts, will be free to use and manually operated, with the idea being that a button can be pressed "every three or four minutes" to keep the water flowing.

The next step for the council will be to put the job out for tender, with work expected to be completed by December 2023.

Mr Power said that on top of the splash park, the council will now seek further funding to develop outdoor benches and chairs for when "parents are sitting on the side-lines."

"The next phase, we'll hopefully put barbecues in as well," he added.

"Hopefully by November and December, we'll have a whole complex that's free of charge. People will be absolutely excited."

Mr Power said the $400,000 funding was already locked in and not subject to the result of the upcoming state election.

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