Snapshot:

·      Project – Erina Heights Public School Playground Upgrade

·      Timeline – April - June 2022

·      Budget – $147k + GST

Erina Heights Public School’s playground had been neglected to the point it was basically a wasteland – unusable, overgrown, muddy and dilapidated, with no play equipment. UpBuild was engaged to reshape and reinvigorate the space and enhance its functionality for students to make better use the area to enhance fitness, friendships and fun, all while connecting with art and nature. UpBuild delivered a fun, safe and well-considered playground with colourful play equipment, a large shade cloth, sturdy fencing, vibrant synthetic grass, sandstone block seating, a dry creek bed garden and an array of fun and creative ways to use the outdoor space. These creative solutions included an in-built concrete hopscotch pathway to play hopscotch, embedded round stepping stones to walk and balance on, structural bridges to provide safe passage into the garden and dry creek bed, and a stage in front of the art mural to allow the kids to make up performances and let their imagination run free. The project required careful landscape design and planning and delicate manoeuvring with significant earth excavation, levelling and installation of sandstone retaining walls, introducing considerable access issues and challenges given the location of the site within the school grounds. This, in addition to torrential rain for much of the duration of the works, meant it wasn’t straight forward but the team rose to the challenge and delivered a beautiful, interactive playground that has become a much-loved asset to the school and will be enjoyed for years to come.