The much-anticipated Walliabup Skate & Recreation Park on the eastern side of Bibra Lake will open for business after an official ceremony at 1pm on Saturday, 25 August.
The $2m+ project nearly four years in the making, is due to the wishful thinking and then determined actions of four local skateboarders who began a petition in the 2014 summer school holidays to bring forward the mooted upgrade of the Bibra Lake skate ramps.
Hunter Moore, Cameron Giles, Cody Cleggett and Jai Grant – now in high school – were all bored primary school students when they complained to their parents there was nothing to do in Bibra Lake because the local skate ramp was too old.
Cameron and his friends followed his parents’ advice to force some positive change in their community by door-knocking for signatures for a petition requesting council upgrade the facility, a cause championed by Bibra Lake Residents Association (BLRA).
In 2015, BLRA members Kylie Fuller and Michelle Barnett presented the petition to council which allocated $40,000 for consultation and design in 2016-2017.
A council decision in May 2017 allocated more than $2m to the project in 2017-2018, fulfilling a proposal within the original Bibra Lake Management Plan.
The first sod was turned on the project in January with the tender going to Osborne Park firm MG Group which this year also completed the new Scarborough skate park – Perth’s biggest – as part of the Scarborough foreshore redevelopment.
The Walliabup Skate and Recreation Park has been made possible with $894,280 in council funding; $780,720 from developer contributions and a $440,000 grant commitment from Willagee MLA the Hon. Peter Tinley through the State Government Local Projects Local Jobs program.
Following extensive community consultation, the 1,200sqm facility includes a street plaza, skate ramps, a half pipe and scooter track, public toilets, a 24-bay car park, shelters, barbecue amenities, a basketball three-on-three court and a playground for young children.
The skate park is designed to imitate obstacles that riders may find in the urban environment to develop their skills. It also features traditional skate park elements such as the mini ramp, rails and ledges and special features like the satellite dish, vertical wall and pool like transitions.
It also features artwork by students from the adjacent Bibra Lake Primary School who helped create tiles embedded in the park’s pathways.
The park will be jointly opened by Mayor Logan Howlett and the Hon. Peter Tinley MLA.