New facilities at Indigo Shire Council’s Wahgunyah Recreation Reserve.
Accessible, Inclusive, Innovative
An award winner at the 2022 National Sports Convention, Tania Fountain looks at iDwala’s transformation of Indigo Shire Council’s Wahgunyah Recreation Reserve
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ecognising the creation of one of the most inclusive and accessible regional multisport facilities in Victoria, the transformation of Wahgunyah Recreation Reserve involving community sport facility specialist iDwala was a recent winner in the Sport Surfaces category at the 2022 Australian Sport, Recreation and Play Innovation Awards. Funded through Indigo Shire Council’s receipt of a $1.09 million grant under the Victorian Government’s Community Sports Infrastructure Stimulus Program in August 2020, the project set out to revive the Reserve’s tennis and netball courts to cater for growing demand and compliant facilities. A major driver of the inclusive design and construction aspect of the project was to cater for the ageing population of the town on the southern banks of the Murray River, along with young families moving to the area. The older users of the Reserve required a safe and inclusive facility that provided easy access and suitable sports surfaces that were gentle on their joints and
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suitable for slower paced recreation while a desire to increase social and structured tennis and netball for young families and their children had previously not been possible due to the deteriorated and even hazardous existing court surfaces and surrounds/run-offs. With inclusion at the heart of this project, the aim was to develop a facility catering for all persons that would help increase physical activity across the region - which it has achieved - driving more awareness for superior sporting facilities and participation from the broader catchment area, not only in the Shire of Indigo but in the Riverina region of southern NSW. Undertaken during 2021, iDwala’s design and construction process took special consideration of the need to deliver accessible and inclusive facilities that would ensure all participants and spectators were able to access, use and depart the entire facility easily and safely. As a result, the facility now features wider walkways and
