The Bower Cottages is a Charles Sturt Community Centre located at 200 Bower Road, Semaphore Park. It welcomes many community groups, is hired for community events & functions, and includes an undercover, outdoor seating area, a small play area and a community garden out the back.

The outdoor play area currently has a softfall space with 2 spinning features, surrounded by bark chip, pathways with inlaid mosaics, greenery and plants, and beautiful, large trees. The current play equipment is due to be replaced in the 2023/24 financial year.

The play equipment area is quite small, and we will be limited by what we can fit in the space as well as the smaller budget for this project. While we can only consider approximately 2 pieces of equipment to replace what is existing here, we will consider the consultation results and whether a different piece of equipment to what is proposed would be preferred by centre visitors.

Consultation on the draft play space renewal plans opened mid-May and closed on Friday, 9 June 2023. At the time, we heard that visiting children and young people enjoy the spinning equipment, so the draft plan included a new spinning, 'Tippi Carousel' in addition to a swing set with a parent/junior swing and a senior swing. However, the draft plan were modified following consultation, based on the feedback we received - in particular, a desire for an additioanl piece of equipment.

Modifications made to the draft plan

Following the close of consultation and feedback received from users and community centre staff, we considered how the play area could be modified to fit another piece of equipment. While the original space could only fit 2 pieces of equipment, we wanted to take on board what we heard - that the number of children visiting the centre is expected to increase and that the kindy children were excited by the possibility of a third play item. We have been investigating the removal of some redundant perimeter space and planter boxes/garden beds so that we can slightly increase the play footprint to allow third play item to be installed.

We will do our best to include a swing set, a climbing/spinning structure and a seesaw.

Keep an eye on this page for the final concept plan to be released soon! Page followers will receive a notification when it's released.