MacCabe Park is set for its biggest rethink in decades, with Wollongong City Council preparing to start work on a new masterplan this financial year – and the future of Lang Park could be considered alongside it.
Council first resolved in 1979 to acquire the properties adjoining MacCabe Park, progressively buying the sites along Keira Street over the decades since.
“Nothing ever happens in a hurry at local government,” Lord Mayor Tania Brown joked.
But securing the final property, 267 Keira Street, Wollongong, means Council now owns the entire park precinct and can, for the first time, plan its future with the full footprint in its hands.
“We can start to masterplan in confidence because we own the whole thing,” Cr Brown said.
MacCabe Park has been repeatedly reimagined over the decades, with masterplans developed in 1994 and 1999, followed by detailed work by the NSW Government Architect in 2011 and Gehl Architects in 2016.
But Cr Brown believes the new masterplan needs to start with a clean slate.
“I do think we need to start from scratch, mainly because our city has changed a lot from that time,” she said.
“We need to look at it in today’s context and the next 40, 50 years.”
One of the biggest changes is the amount of residential development in the city centre.
“MacCabe Park is going to be in the centre of a lot of units, a lot of development around it,” Cr Brown said.
“So it’s very important that we preserve this public green space.”
The park itself has changed considerably over that time. It once contained a cycling track, four tennis courts and a football ground, before Council began moving away from organised sport and towards parkland in the late 1940s.
Cr Brown has her own ideas for the next iteration.
“I particularly want to see an entertainment precinct here in MacCabe,” she said.
“I have long stated my desire for a music shell so that we can have pop-up concerts and carols in MacCabe Park and that sort of community event.”
She would also like to see more nature play and has floated a walking or running track around the park.
But she said retaining simple, open green space was just as important.
“Someone might just want to have a picnic or kick a ball,” she said. “You need that free play. I think that’s an important element.”
The eventual removal of some buildings along Keira Street would open up more of the 5.6-hectare precinct as parkland.
“Once you widen the footprint by ultimately demolishing a lot of the buildings that sit along Keira Street, we’ve got a lot more footprint to play with,” Cr Brown said.
Which buildings stay will be part of the discussion.
Cr Brown said the youth services building had, in her personal view, “reached its use-by date”, although she wanted youth services retained. She also pointed to the well-used Project Contemporary Artspace and the fact Wollongong does not have a city-centre community centre.
“Maybe there is a structure that gets built, maybe in one of the corners, that fills that need,” she said. “I think that’s part of the master planning process to work out what does the community want here.”
Cr Brown also wants Council to look at Lang Park at the same time.
Lang Park has long been earmarked for its own masterplan, and Cr Brown said there was little point in planning the two major city parks independently.
“You don’t want to duplicate things on both parks, but what fits best where?” she said. “That’s why I think it’s a good idea to do them together rather than in isolation.”
Lang Park sits within the beachside sporting and entertainment precinct, while MacCabe Park is surrounded by a growing residential population.
It could mean some ideas that don’t fit at MacCabe Park are considered for Lang Park instead.
One part of MacCabe Park’s future is already decided.
The 1500-square-metre regional skatepark will proceed, with its tender expected to go before Council in October and further consultation to follow during the design process.
The decision remains contentious, with the Friends of MacCabe Park calling on Council to abandon the project over the loss of grassed open space.
Cr Brown said she was comfortable proceeding with the skatepark ahead of the broader masterplan.
“I think we’ve got so much space that we can make a regional skatepark still fit and allow more green space,” she said.
There is no price tag yet for the broader transformation.
Cr Brown said she had already started talking to Council staff about putting money aside because “what we want to do is going to cost a lot of money”.
The masterplan itself could take about a year to complete, with Cr Brown keen to have a clear direction before the end of her term as Mayor in 2028.
“I would like to have a pretty good plan by the end of it,” she said.
For a project almost 50 years in the making, she is enthusiastic about finally reaching the point where the conversation can shift from acquiring the park to deciding what to do with it.
“It’s exciting and I know our community will want to have their say on it too.”